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A SECOI^D BOOK OF CHARIJE STORIES 

Charlie and His Puppy Bingo 




THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS 
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 

TORONTO 





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Charlie 














CHARLIE AND HIS 
PUPPY BINGO 


BY 

HELEN HILL 

AND 

VIOLET MAXWELL 

AUTHORS OF “CHARLIE AND HIS KITTEN TOPSY” 


ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHORS 


j|2fto gocft 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

1923 


All rights reserved 


FEINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMEEICA 


/ 



OOPTRIGHT, 1923, 

By the MACMILLAN COMPAlfT. 


Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1923. 



SEP 19 1923 



DEDICATED TO 

A. T. M. M. 



FOREWORD 


The authors have made every effort to 
write these little stories in language that 
will be intelligible to very little children. 

They have observed that it is much easier 
to hold a small child’s attention when telling 
stories, rather than when reading them 
aloud. So they have tried to put these 
stories in informal English, using frequent 
repetitions, with here and there an interest¬ 
ing long word, and italicizing words on 
which emphasis is to be laid, their object 
being to write the stories as they would be 
told. 







CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

I Bingo Comes to Lite with Charlie . 1 

II Charlie Learns the Traffic Laws . 13 

III How Bingo Lost His Spots ... 28 

IV Charlie Rides on the Engine of a 

Real Train.41 

V Bingo and the Angry Rooster . . 56 

VI Charlie Delivers Mail for the 

Stage Driver.67 

VII Charlie Makes a Pool and Sails His 

Boat. 87 

VIII Charlie Builds a Real House out op 

Brick.101 

IX Bingo Learns to Come When He Is 

Called.120 

X What Charlie Did on a Rainy Day . 135 









ILLUSTRATIONS 


Charlie. 

The puppy drank all the milk . 
Bingo had to travel in the baggage 
The rooster kept Bingo a prisoner 
Charlie blew a tremendous blast 
Charlie and the stage driver talk to^ 
The boat sailed beautifully . 
Charlie watehed the builders 
One of the strange boys held Bing< 
Charlie made three villages . 


Frontisp 

iece 

PAGE 

Opposite 

10 

. Facing 

43 

it 

• 

63 

ti 

• 

77 

ir 

81 

it 

• 

99 

Opposite 

107 

Facing 

129 

Opposite 

143 










Charlie and His Puppy Bingo 


TO READ FIRST 


Charlie was a little boy who lived with his 
Mother and his Daddy and his Auntie in a 
house in the city. The house had a big yard 
all around it, where Charlie liked to play. 

A cat called Jane and her kitten Topsy 
also lived in the house. Topsy and Charlie 
were great friends and they played together 
all day long. Jane sometimes played with 
them too, but Jane was a cat who loved little 
babies, both baby cats and baby humans, 
and she was sad because Charlie was grow¬ 
ing to be a big little boy, and Topsy was a 
big little kitten—so big that he could wash 
himself and it would have been absurd for 
Jane to go on washing him when he was 
such a big little kitten! 


XV 









BINGO COMES TO LIVE WITH 

CHARLIE 

O NE morning Charlie woke up suddenly 
because his kitten Topsy had jumped 
on his bed and was tickling him under the 
chinl 

Charlie woke up, and somehow he felt 

different—he felt most awfully old —and 

then he remembered whyl 

“I’m five years old!” he shouted and 

jumped out of bed. With Topsy on his 

1 




2 CHARLIE 

shoulder, he ran downstairs to the kitchen 
where his Mother and his Auntie were get¬ 
ting breakfast ready. 

“I’m five years old!” he shouted again, 
and jumped into his Mother’s arms. “I’m 
a great big boy now.” 

His Mother said, “Yes, indeed, you are a 
great big boy now, think of it! It takes all 
the fingers of one hand to tell how old you 
are!” And his Mother hugged him hard 
and his Auntie hugged him hard too and 
they both wished him “Many happy returns 
of the day.” 

Then Charlie ran upstairs again and 
started to dress himself. He could dress 
himself quite easily, but sometimes when 
he was lazy he would pretend that he could 
not and call out for his Auntie to button 
him up. 

But as he was five years old to-day Charlie 
was going to show everybody what a big boy 
he was. So he brushed his hair and cleaned 


AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 3 

his teeth and buttoned all the buttons and 
came out of his room at the same time as 
his Daddy came out of Ms, 

*ivhat a big boy you are!” said his 
Daddy. “I can hardly lift you.” But he 
did lift him all the same and carried him 
down the stairs and into the dining room 
on top of his shoulder! 

And when they got into the dining room 
Charlie scrambled all down his Daddy with¬ 
out waiting to be put down—for there were 
the most ex-cit-ing looking parcels on the 
table beside his plate, and one of them was 
so e-nor-mous that it took up half the room 
on the table! 

Charlie could not wait one minute, he 
started right away to take the wrapping 
paper off the great, e-nor-mous parcel. 

It was tied with blue ribbons just like the 
other parcels, for all that it was so e-nor- 
mous. Charlie pulled and he tugged and 
at last the wrapping paper was all off. 


4 


CHARLIE 


And what do you think it was? You never 
can guess! No one could ever guess that 
such a thing could be on the breakfast table 
beside a little boy’s plate, even though it 
was the little boy’s birthday and he was five 
years old. It was an automobile! Yes, it 
was an automobile that Charlie could sit in 
and pedal with his feet, and it would go just 
like a real automobile, j Charlie’s Daddy 
lifted it to the fioor and Charlie ex-am-ined 
it all over. It had real lights and a wind 
shield and a steering gear. It was the most 
beautiful automobile that any little boy 
ever had! 

There were a lot of other parcels beside 
his plate, and they were all interesting. 
There was a new suit for Charlie, and it 
was a sailor suit, just like those that big 
boys wear. It had a lanyard and a whistle, 
and it had a red stripe and an emblem on 
the sleeves. Then there were two new cars 
for his electric train, and a pair of scissors 


AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 5 

with blunt edges, so that Charlie could cut 
things out himself and not always have to 
ask his Mother or his Auntie to do it 
for him. There was an express wagon 
that he could haul stones and grass in, 
and there was a new battery for his flash¬ 
light! 

Charlie was still looking at all his beauti¬ 
ful presents, when there came a ring at the 
door and a loud whistle. It was the post¬ 
man! Charlie ran to the front door and 
opened it. And he said to the postman, ‘T 
am flve years old, and IVe got an automo¬ 
bile and a whistle just like yours, and a lot 
of other things.” 

And the postman said, ‘T thought that 
you had grown a lot taller since I saw you 
yesterday. It’s fine that you have got a 
whistle like mine. There is nothing to pre¬ 
vent you from being a postman yourself 
now, is there? Then you can carry your 
own mail. Look what a lot of letters I 


6 


CHARLIE 


have brought this morning—and they are 
all for you!” 

Yes, indeed, the postman was right, all 
the letters were for Charlie, and every letter 
had a beautiful card in it wishing him 
“Many happy returns of the day.” And 
there was a letter from Uncle Jim; it had 
a whole dollar bill in it, and the dollar bill 
was for Charlie! Yes, the dollar bill 
was all for Charlie, and his Mother said that 
she would take him down to the stores and 
he might buy whatever he liked with it. 

Then his Daddy said, “What are you go¬ 
ing to buy with the dollar?” 

And Charlie said, “I am going to buy a 
present for Mother and a present for Auntie 
and a present for you, then we will all have 
presents on my birthday!” 

Well, it took such a long time opening all 
his presents and looking at all his birthday 
cards that it seemed as if Charlie would not 
get any breakfast at all that day. But at 


AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 7 

last he had all his presents spread out on 
the table in front of him, so that he could 
look at them while he was eating his break¬ 
fast; that is, all except the automobile, and 
that was on the floor beside his chair. 

At last he flnished his breakfast and he 
went into the kitchen to give Jane and 
Topsy their breakfast, when—what do you 
think? Jane wasn’t there! No, Jane was 
not in the kitchen at all, or in the dining 
room, or upstairs in any of the bedrooms, 
nor was she in the yard. Jane had ab-so- 
lute-ly disappeared! 

Charlie and his Mother and his Auntie 
called, “Jane, Jane, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty!” 
all over the house and all over the yard, but 
no Jane came. 

Never before had Jane been late for 
breakfast, but now that she did not come 
Topsy had to have breakfast all by him¬ 
self. 

Charlie felt very sad that Jane had dis- 


8 


CHARLIE 


appeared on his birthday. He loved Jane 
very much, nearly as much as he loved 
Topsy. He sat down on the floor and be¬ 
gan to play with his new toys, but every 
few minutes he got up and went to the 
window to see if Jane was coming back. 
Yes, Charlie went to the window three, 
four, five times, and there was no Jane. 
The sixth time that Charlie looked out of 
the window, what do you think he saw? He 
saw Jane coming down the garden path, 
and she was carrying something in her 
mouth. It was something big and heavy, 
four times as big as a mouse! It was so 
big and heavy that Jane had to drag it along 
the ground. 

Charlie rushed to the door and called out, 
“Mother! Auntie! Come quick! Jane has 
come back and she has something e-nor- 
mous in her mouth AND IT’S ALIVE!” 

Then he opened the front door just as 
Jane reached it, and Jane dropped the thing 


AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 9 

that she was carrying in her mouth. What 
do you think it was? 

You never can guess. IT WAS A 
LITTLE, TINY PUPPY! Yes, a little 
baby puppy, so little that it could hardly 
walk! 

Jane had been so sad at not having any 
baby kitten to play with any more, now that 
Topsy had grown to be such a big kitten, 
that she had found a baby puppy instead, 
and she had brought it home on Charlie’s 
birthday so that it could be Charlie’s puppy 
too. 

Oh, but Charlie and his Mother and his 
Auntie were excited! They picked up the 
baby puppy and they stroked Jane and told 
her what a good cat she was. 

Then Charlie’s Auntie took the puppy 
into the kitchen and tried to feed him with 
some warm milk, but he was so little that he 
had not learned how to drink yet! 

So Charlie’s Mother said, ‘T will go to 


10 


CHARLIE 


the toy shop, and I will buy a doll’s baby 
bottle. Perhaps the puppy will be able to 
drink out of that,” 

And she did. Yes, Charlie’s Mother put 
on her hat and coat and she went to the 
toy shop. She was not gone five minutes. 
She hurried so fast, because she was afraid 
that the puppy might be hungry. 

When Charlie’s mother came back with 
the doll’s baby bottle his Auntie heated some 
nice warm milk and put it in the bottle, and 
the puppy sucked and sucked just like a 
baby. Yes, he sucked and sucked until he 
had drunk all the milk that was in the bottle! 

Then Charlie’s Mother put the puppy 
into Jane’s basket and Jane got in also and 
the puppy snuggled up close to her and 
went to sleep. 

Topsy was so interested in the baby 
puppy that he tried to get into the basket 
also, but there was no room for him. So 
he sat outside the basket and every now and 



The Puppy Drank All the Milk 




































































r 


$ 



AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 11 

then he patted the puppy with his paw, but 
very gently so as not to wake him. 

When Charlie’s Daddy came home in the 
evening, he was most interested and most 
excited to hear that Jane had brought a 
puppy home to hve with them. 

He said to Charlie, “What are you going 
to call the puppy? Of course, he is really 
Jane’s puppy, but I think Jane means him 
to be partly yours, as she brought him home 
to you on your birthday. Anyway, Jane 
can not choose a name for him that we 
would understand.” 

So Charlie thought for a minute. Then 
he said, “I think I will call the puppy 
Bingo. The iceman has a dog and his 
name is Bingo. I think he is such a nice 
man, and Bingo is a beautiful name.” 

Charlie’s Mother and his Auntie and his 
Daddy thought it a beautiful name too, so 
the puppy was called Bingo. He slept in 
a basket with Jane and Topsy, for Charlie’s 


12 CHARLIE AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 

Auntie got another basket that was big 
enough for the three of them. And he took 
his meals out of the doll’s baby bottle. 
Jane washed him all day long and she was 
as happy, as happy could be, now that she 
had a darling little baby of her own again. 
In fact she was as happy as if it was her 
birthday instead of Charlie’s. 




CHARLIE LEARNS THE 
TRAFFIC LAWS 

N ow that Charlie had an automobile, you 

may be sure that he drove in it every 

single day—that is every day that the sun 

was shining, for, of course, he could not 

drive in the automobile when it was raining! 

In the mornings, when his Mother and his 

Auntie were busy in the house, Charlie used 

to drive up and down the garden path; but 

in the afternoons, when his Mother and his 

13 


14 CHARLIE 

Auntie went for a walk, he drove beside 
them in his automobile, and Bingo always 
came too. 

Bingo was growing to be a big little 
puppy—he no longer drank his milk out of 
a bottle. Oh, dear, no! Bingo could lap 
up his milk as well as any grown-up dog. 
He had a saucer to himself just like Topsy 
and Jane, and Charlie gave him his break¬ 
fast every morning and his dinner and his 
supper at the same time that he gave Jane 
and Topsy theirs. 

You may be sure that Charlie enjoyed 
driving in his automobile with Bingo pranc¬ 
ing beside him. But though Charlie drove 
his automobile every morning and every 
afternoon, he did not really know how to 
drive it at all! No indeed! Charlie always 
wanted to pedal so fast that he paid no at¬ 
tention to his steering, and the automobile 
went Wiggly, wiggly all over the place. 
When he was driving in the garden Charlie 



AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 15 

never could keep to the path, he would pedal 
so fast that the automobile would run up 
on the grass and into the flower beds. And 
when he was out on the sidewalk with his 
Mother and his Auntie, the automobile 
would zigzag from left to right and from 
right to left in a most pe-cul-iar way. 

His Mother and his Auntie said to him 
again and again, “Don’t pedal so fast, 
Charlie. Go slower and try to steer prop¬ 
erly, some day you will crash into a lamp- 
post and maybe break your automobile all 
to pieces.” But Charlie did not listen. He 
just went on pedaling as fast as ever he 
could and paid no attention to his steering 
at all. 

One day his Mother and his Auntie were 
walking along the sidewalk and Charlie was 
driving in front in his automobile, while 
Bingo pranced along, sometimes beside 
Charlie, and sometimes running back to see 
what Charlie’s Mother and his Auntie were 


16 


CHARLIE 


doing. Charlie was pedaling away as fast 
as ever he could and his automobile was go¬ 
ing wigg^ly, wiggly all over the sidewalk. 

Quite a little way in front, an old gentle¬ 
man was walking, and he was on the outer 



edge of the sidewalk, as was right and 
proper for him to be. He was looking at 
his newspaper and he did not know that 
Charlie was driving toward him, paying no 




AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 17 

attention to his steering and zigzagging 
from left to right and from right to left 
again—when suddenly, Charlie’s automobile 
went crash! Bang! straight into the old 
gentleman! That was dreadful! 

The old gentleman stopped short, and, 
when he had got his breath, he said, “Don’t 
you know that automobiles should keep to 
the right? Or is it possible that you are 
driving an automobile and don’t know the 
traffic laws?” 

Of course Charlie apologized very po¬ 
litely to the old gentleman for bumping into 
him, and then he had to say that he knew 
nothing about the traffic laws at all. This 
made Charlie feel very much ashamed. 

“Dear me!” said the old gentleman. 
^'That is the most extraordinary thing I 
ever heard! To own an automobile, and 
not to know the traffic laws!” 

By this time Charlie’s Mother and his 
Auntie had come up and it was very sur- 


18 


CHARLIE 


prising—^the old gentleman seemed to know 
them both very well. He shook hands with 
them both and said, “This young man has 
just been telling me that he does not know 
the traffic laws, though I have often watched 
him out of my window driving his automo¬ 
bile, and the way he zigzags up and down 
the pavement would be enough for him to 
have his license taken away if a policeman 
were to see him!” 

Charlie felt very sad when he heard this. 
He had a beautiful license number on the 
back of his automobile and he thought it 
would be a dreadful thing if a policeman 
were to take it away because he did not 
know the traffic laws. 

Then the old gentleman said, “I have an 
automobile of my own, and it is a big one 
that runs with gasoline. I would be very 
glad to take you for a drive this afternoon 
and teach you every traffic law there is, if 
your Mother will let you come with me. I 


AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 19 

live quite near here, so we could start right 
away.” 

Of course Charlie’s Mother said at once 
that she would be delighted if the old gentle¬ 
man, whose name was Mr. Armstrong, 
would take Charlie for a drive in his auto¬ 
mobile. 

Suddenly Bingo, who had been jumping 
around as usual, went straight up to Mr. 
Armstrong and stood up on his hind legs 
as if begging to go too. 

Then Mr. Armstrong said, ‘Ts that your 
puppy?” And Charlie said, “NO, that is 
my dog. His name is Bingo! He does 
not like to be called a puppy. May he come 
with us too?” 

Mr. Armstrong looked doubtful. He 
said, “Bingo looks very much like a puppy 
to me, and puppies are apt to get into mis¬ 
chief; but if you are careful to keep him on 
his leash and hold on tightly to him, you 
may take him with us.” 


20 


CHARLIE 


You may be sure that Charlie felt very 
much excited at the thought of driving in 
a real automobile and learning the traffic 
laws just like a grown-up person. 

He and his Mother and his Auntie went 
home and put Charlie’s automobile in the 
back hall while Mr. Armstrong went round 
to his garage to get his automobile. Soon 
he drove up in it and Charlie chmbed in, 
holding Bingo firmly by the leash so that 
he should not get into mischief. 

Mr. Armstrong said that they had better 
drive downtown as there was such a lot of 
traffic there and Charlie would be able to 
watch the policeman handle the traffic. On 
the way Mr. Armstrong told Charlie all 
about the traffic laws and the reason for 
every one. He told him how an automobile 
must never pass a street car when it has 
stopped to let off passengers, and how an 
automobile driver must always hold his arm 
out when he is going round a corner, so that 


AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 


21 



people crossing the street can see in which 
direction he is going. 

It was all very interesting and Charlie 
kept a strict lookout to see if all the auto¬ 
mobiles they passed were observing the 
traffic laws. 

At last they reached the business section 
of the city, where there are so many auto¬ 
mobiles and street cars and carts that a 
















































22 


CHARLIE 


policeman has always to stand in the middle 
of the road to direct the traffic; otherwise 
people would never be able to cross the 
street in safety at all. 

Charlie thought that the policeman looked 
very grand standing all by himself in the 
middle of the road. And whenever he blew 
his whistle, either the crosstown traffic or 
the uptown and downtown traffic in turn 
was stopped, as if by magic, to let the other 
have the right of way. Then the people on 
the sidewalk all crossed together in a crowd, 
for they knew that the automobiles and 
street cars would not go on again until the 
policeman blew his whistle. 

When Mr. Armstrong wanted to stop 
outside a shop and it was on the left side 
of the street, he drove all the way to the 
next corner and he waited there until the 
policeman could let him turn his car around 
and drive back so that the shop was on his 
right and he could stop his car close to the 


AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 23 

sidewalk just in front of the shop. It was 
a confectioner’s shop and they both went in 
and Mr. Armstrong ordered chocolate and 
sponge cake for them both. It was deli¬ 
cious! While they were in the confection¬ 
er’s Bingo was left tied up in the automo¬ 
bile. He did not hke it at all and he called 
out “Yap, yap, yap!” at the top of his lungs 
until Charlie and Mr. Armstrong came 
back. 

At last it was time to go home. When 
they had driven into the main street again 
and Charlie was turning his head this way 
and that, so as not to miss a single thing 
that was going on, he was so interested that 
he forgot all about Bingo. Indeed, he al¬ 
most let go of his leash, he was holding it 
so loosely—when, suddenly, what do you 
think? Bingo gave one yank at the leash 
and jumped right out of the automobile! 
Yes, he did! 

All the automobiles were slowing up for 


24 


CHARLIE 


the crossing, and the policeman was stand¬ 
ing quite close, but at any moment he might 
signal for them to go on again. 

It was dreadfully dangerous for Bingo to 
be all by himself in the middle of that 
crowded street with automobiles and street 
cars, and carts and trucks all moving along. 
Charlie was so frightened that he called out, 
“Mr. Policeman, Mr. Policeman!” and the 
policeman looked at him, and he saw Bingo 
at the same moment and guessed what had 
happened. 

He blew his whistle three times, and all 
the automobiles stopped, those going up¬ 
town and downtown, and those going cross¬ 
town, they all stopped immediately. Then 
the policeman tried to catch Bingo, but he 
was so frightened that he crawled right 
under an automobile, and he would not 
come out when the policeman called him. 

So the policeman came up to Charlie and 
said, “You had better come along with me. 


AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 25 

If you call your dog, he will know your voice 
and come out when you call him.” 

Charlie took the policeman’s hand and 
they went in and out among the automobiles 
and carts and trucks and busses, which were 
all standing perfectly still, till they came to 
the automobile under which Bingo was hid¬ 
ing. When Bingo saw Charlie and heard 
him call “Bingo, Bingo!” he came crawling 
out and he was so glad to see Charlie that 
he jumped high in the air, wagging his tail 
and barking, “Yap, yap, yap!” 

As soon as Charlie and Bingo were safe 
in Mr. Armstrong’s automobile, the police¬ 
man blew his whistle and all the traffic, 
which had been held up to rescue Bingo, 
started again. And Charlie held Bingo as 
tight as ever he could, so that he should not 
jump out again. But I don’t think that 
Bingo would have done so, even if he could 
have, he had been so frightened when he was 
hiding under the automobile, with so many 


26 CHARLIE 

trucks and carts and cars around him. And 
he was right to be frightened, for he would 
have been in great danger if the policeman 
had not blown his whistle just at the right 
moment. 

And now Charlie knew for himself how 
very important the traffic laws are, for if 
one single automobile had disobeyed the 
policeman when he blew three blasts on his 
whistle and had not stopped immediately. 
Bingo might have been run over! 

So, ever after that, when Charlie was in 
his automobile he was always careful to fol¬ 
low every one of the traffic laws that he had 
learned. 

He never pedaled faster than he could 
steer, and he always kept on the right side 
of the pavement so as not to run into people 
by accident. When he came to a corner, 
he always stretched out his arm to show 
the direction he was going in. And, when 
a street car stopped in the middle of the 


ANB HIS PUPPY BINGO 27 

road to let off passengers, Charlie always 
stopped too, until it had gone on again. 

Yes, Charlie followed the traffic laws so 
carefully that the policeman, who always 
stood at the Park gate, noticed it; and he 
said to him one day, “As soon as you are 
sixteen years old, you can come to me, and 
I will see that you get a license to drive a 
real automobile. If everybody obeyed the 
traffic laws as well as you do, there would 
never be any accidents at all.” 



HOW BINGO LOST HIS SPOTS 

B ingo was a nice little puppy and a dear 

little puppy. He played with Charlie 

and Topsy all day long. He frisked around 

and barked “Yap, yap,” for though he was 

getting to be a big little puppy, he could 

not yet say “Bow-wow,” though you may be 

sure he tried to over and over again. 

Charlie and Topsy and Bingo had lots of 

fun playing together and, when Charlie was 

28 


CHARLIE AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 29 

playing with them, Topsy and Bingo were 
always good; but sometimes, when Topsy 
and Bingo played alone together, they were 
as bad as bad could be and got into all kinds 
of mischief—especially Bingo. 

Yes, Bingo could think up the naughtiest 
things to do! He liked to dig in the flower 
beds and bury bits of sticks that he pre¬ 
tended were bones. That was lots of fun 
for Bingo but very bad for the flowers! 
And he liked to go into people’s bedrooms 
and hide their bedroom slippers so that they 
could not And them anywhere. 

But most of all he liked to eat up the 
carpet in the dining room. Oh, my good¬ 
ness! What fun Bingo did have with that 
carpet! He would hold one corner in his 
mouth and he would waggle his tail and 
scrabble with his paws and he would growl 
and growl and he would chew at that car¬ 
pet till the wonder was he did not chew it 
all up. 



30 


CHARLIE 


Yes, Bingo thought up all these naughty 
things to do when he was playing by him¬ 
self and he also tried to imitate the things 
that Topsy did. 

Topsy was very fond of climbing, and he 
could climb beautifully. He hardly ever 
knocked anything down. No indeed! Topsy 
could jump straight on to the mantelpiece 
and walk among the ornaments and not 
knock a single one down! 

Charlie’s Mother and his Auntie did not 
like Topsy to do this. They were afraid that 
some day he might throw something down— 
but he never did. Bingo thought that he 
would love to be able to climb like that. 
He looked at Topsy with admiring eyes and 
this made Topsy all the more anxious to 
show off. 

Sometimes Topsy would climb up the 
dining room curtains all the way to the top, 
and that made Charlie’s Mother and his 
Auntie very angry, because his little sharp 


AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 31 

claws made scratches on the curtains. Then 
they would shake them hard so that Topsy 
would have to chmb down. He would not 
learn that he must not do it again. 

For Topsy loved to show off. He knew 
that he could climb better than anybody in 
the house and so he wanted to do it all 
the time, and the more he did it the more 
Bingo wanted to show Topsy that he could 
climb as well. But of course he could 
not. 

One reason was that Bingo could not 
jump as high as Topsy. A little dog never 
can jump as high as a kitten. They are not 
made that way. So when Bingo wanted to 
climb he had to scramble up with his paws 
and he always knocked against something 
or other which would come down with a 
crash and a bang and somebody would say, 
“Oh, you bad Bingo, you have broken some¬ 
thing again!” It was very discouraging. 

One day Charlie and his Mother and his 


32 


CHARLIE 


Auntie had gone out. They had gone down¬ 
town to do some shopping so they had de¬ 
cided to leave Bingo at home, as one can 
not very well take a little dog into a de¬ 
partment store. 



with nobody to look after them but Jane, 
and she was not much good, as she was feel¬ 
ing very sleepy and had gone up to the attic 
to sleep undisturbed. 

Topsy and Bingo decided that they would 
have a glorious time with nobody to inter¬ 
fere with them, no matter what mischief 
they might be up to. 


AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 33 

First they went into the dining room and 
they had a grand time playing with the rug. 
This, as you know, was one of Bingo’s 
favorite games and he showed Topsy ex- 
act-ly how to play it—how you pretend that 
the rug is a wild animal, and how you grab 
the end in your mouth and kick and scrabble 
with your paws and growl in a low and 
dreadful voice. Topsy thought that this 
was a grand game. He liked the growling 
part especially. You should have heard the 
ferocious growls that Topsy made. Bingo 
felt quite frightened, although he knew it 
was only in fun. 

When they got tired of that game, they 
went into the kitchen to see what interest¬ 
ing things they could find to do there. And, 
of course, Topsy began to climb—yes, he 
climbed up on everything in the kitchen ex¬ 
cept on the kitchen stove. He was too wise 
a kitten to do that He climbed up on to the 
window sill and on to the table and on to 



34 


CHARLIE 


the sink. Then he jumped up on to the 
kitchen dresser and climbed to the very top 
shelf, where he walked in and out among the 
plates, and yet he did not knock a single 
one down! Every now and then Topsy 
looked down at Bingo and tossed his head, 
as if to say, “Don’t you wish you could do 
it, too?” Bingo was wild with excitement. 
He jumped up on his hind legs and barked, 
“Yap, yap, yap!” in his funny, hoarse little 
voice. 

At last he determined that he would 
climb up on the kitchen dresser, too. 
Yes, he would climb up to the very top 
shelf and show Topsy that he could climb, 
too! 

There was a chair close to the kitchen 
dresser and Bingo first managed to climb 
up on that, then he scrambled up on to the 
dresser. He felt very proud when he looked 
down to the floor and saw what a height 
he had climbed to. Topsy was still up on 


AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 


35 






o 

o 


the top shelf looking down at him with his 
head on one side. 

Bingo then stood up on his hind legs and 
he put his paws up on the next shelf—but, 
oh, dear! Bingo was unlucky again! He 
knocked against a big, round, white tin that 
had FLOUB written on it in gold letters. 
And it toppled right over!—yes, it toppled 
right over and banged Bingo on the head. 























































S6 


CHARLIE 


and a lot of white, powdery stuff fell 
all over him and got in his eyes. It was 
awful! 

Poor Bingo did not want to climb any 
more. He jumped straight off the kitchen 
dresser on to the floor, and he ran out of 
the kitchen with his little short tail hang¬ 
ing down. He went into the living room 
and hid under the sofa—^poor Bingo was 
feeling very unhappy and he wanted to be 
alone. 

Soon he heard the front door open and 
he heard Charlie’s voice in the hall. Charlie 
and his Mother and his Auntie had come 
home. 

Charlie said, ‘‘Oh, Mother, look at those 
funny white tracks all along the floor. 
What do you think they can be?” 

His Mother and his Auntie looked, and 
they said, “How extraordinary! They look 
like Bingo’s footprints. I wonder what he 
can have been up to.” ■ 



AND HIS PUPPY BINGO S7 

Then Bingo himself came running out 
into the hall to meet Charhe. He had for¬ 
gotten his troubles and he jumped up in 
the air and barked, “Yap, yap, yap,” he 
was so glad that Charlie had come home 
again. But when Charlie saw Bingo, he 
called out in amazement, “Mother, Auntie, 
look! What has happened to Bingo! He 
has lost his spots!” 

And it was true. Bingo had lost all his 
spots! He had lost the black spot on his 
head, and the ones on his ears, and the big 
black spot on his back, and the little black 
spot on the end of his stumpy tail! Yes, 
Bingo was now white all over without a 
particle of black anywhere. 

“What have you done to yourself?” said 
Charlie as he picked him up. Bingo tried 
to tell him all about it, as he wriggled and 
barked and tried to lick Charhe’s face. 
And—lo and behold! the black spots be¬ 
gan to show again, first the one on Bingo’s 


38 


CHARLIE 


head, then the ones on his ears, then the big 
one on his back, and last of all the little one 
on his tail. But now it was Charlie who 
was white—yes, he was white all down the 
front of his coat! 

Then Charlie and his Mother and his 
Auntie followed Bingo’s little white tracks 
to where they came from. They wanted to 
discover what in the world Bingo had been 
doing to get himself white all over. Yes, 
they followed the tracks all the way to the 
kitchen, and there they found the tin of 
flour lying on the floor near the dresser— 
and then they knew what Bingo had been 
doing while they were out. 

Oh, how Charlie and his Mother and his 
Auntie did laugh at the idea of poor, fat, 
little Bingo trying to climb up on the 
kitchen dresser, and knocking the tin of 
flour all over himself! But they were sorry 
for Bingo, too, because they knew how it 
must have frightened him. 



AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 39 

So Charlie’s Auntie found Bingo’s brush, 
and she took him out into the back yard 
and brushed all the rest of the flour off him 
—all that wasn’t on the carpet or the kitchen 
floor or on Charlie’s coat! And Charlie’s 
Mother swept up the flour in the kitchen, 
and swept the tracks on the living-room 
carpet, and she gave Charlie a whisk broom 
to brush off the front of his coat. And 
then she went to the ice box and got a little 
bone, and she gave it to Bingo to comfort 
him. 

So Bingo was happy again after all his 
troubles—but never again did he try to 
climb up on high pieces of furniture, no 
matter how perky Topsy looked at him and 
tried to egg him on. No, Bingo was a wise 
little dog now, and when Topsy climbed up 
on the mantelpiece and looked down at him, 
tossing his head as much as to say, “Don’t 
you wish you could climb like me?” Bingo 
would jump in the air and bark, ‘‘Yap, 


40 CHARLIE AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 


yap!” Then he would stand up on his hind 
legs and beg—and that was one thing that 
Topsy did not know how to do! 



CHARLIE RIDES IN THE EN¬ 
GINE OF A REAL TRAIN 


/^NE day Charlie and his Mother and 
his Auntie and Topsy and Bingo and 
Jane went to stay in the country. 

It was a very interesting place where they 
were going to stay in the country. What 
do you think ? It was the place where 
Charlie’s Daddy had lived when he was a 
little boy! 

Yes, that is where they were going, and, 
as it was a Saturday, Charlie’s Daddy was 
going with them, too. He was not going 
to live with them in the country, because on 
weekdays he had to go to the office every 
day. But he said that he would come down 
every Saturday and stay in the country till 
Sunday night. 


41 


42 CHARLIE AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 

So they all went to the railway station 
in a taxicab. Jane traveled in a cat basket 
and Charlie’s Auntie carried her. Topsy 
also traveled in a cat basket and Charlie’s 
Mother carried him, but Bingo had to travel 
in the baggage car and he had a ticket all 
to himself because he was a dog. Charlie 
thought that he ought to feel very proud. 

When they got to the station they all went 
straight through the gate to the platform, 
and there the train was waiting for them. 
It was a great e-nor-mous train with ever 
so many coaches. First, Charlie and his 
Daddy took Bingo to the baggage car, and 
the baggage man fastened Bingo’s leash to 
the end of a trunk and promised Charlie to 
be good to Bingo. 

Then they all got into the day car, and 
the train gave a loud whistle and steamed 
out of the station. My goodness! how fast 
it went! Everything just seemed to go fly¬ 
ing past. 



Bingo had to travel in the baggage car 


43 











CHARLIE AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 45 

Soon the conductor came walking down 
the aisle and he took everybody’s ticket. He 
was a very grand-looking man; he was tall, 
and stout, and he had a beautiful blue uni¬ 
form on. He soon came to the seat where 
Charlie and his Daddy were sitting, and he 
took the tickets. Yes, the conductor took 
all the tickets and he stuck Charlie’s 
Daddy’s ticket in his hatband, but as his 
Mother and his Auntie had no hatbands, he 
stuck their tickets into the top of the seat in 
front of them. Then he took Charlie’s 
ticket, and he stuck it in Charlie’s hatband. 
Charlie felt very proud, and he would not 
take his hat off. No, he kept his hat on all 
the time because he wanted everybody to see 
that he had a ticket in his hatband just like 
all the other men. 

Then Charlie said to his Daddy, “Daddy, 
what eoo-act-ly makes the train go?” 

And his Daddy said, “It’s the steam that 
makes the engine work, and it is the engi- 


46 CHARLIE 

neer and the fireman who look after the 
steam and the engine.” Then Charlie said, 
“What I want to know is eoo-act-ly what the 
fireman and the engineer do when they are 
making the engine go.” 

But what do you think? His Daddy did 
not know eoc-act-ly what they did—he said 
that he had never ridden on an engine in his 
life, so how could he know what they did? 
And Charlie’s Mother and his Auntie did 
not know either. That was very surprising. 

Well, after they had been in the big train 
for about a whole hour, they came to a sta¬ 
tion where there were a lot of tracks. This 
station was called a junction, because there 
were so many tracks. 

Some of the tracks went to the North and 
some to the South and some to the East and 
some to the West. The train that Charlie 
and his Daddy and his Auntie and his 
Mother were on was going toward the 
West; but now they wanted to go to the 


AISIB HIS PUPPY DOG BINGO 47 

North, so they had to change trains and go 
on a train that was going toward the North, 
The train was already waiting on its own 
track. It was a very little train, it had only 
two coaches! 

Charlie’s Mother and his Auntie and Jane 
and Topsy got into the train, and they took 
Bingo with them, because, as it was such a 
little unimportant train, the conductor said 
that Bingo could travel in the day coach in¬ 
stead of being tied up in the baggage car, 
and Bingo was very glad. But Charlie and 
his Daddy waited on the platform till it was 
time for the train to start, and they looked 
at all the interesting things about them. 

' Then a man came up. He wore overalls 
and a peaked cap. And—you never can 
guess who it was? It was the fireman who 
helped work the engine of the train they 
were going to take. And what do you 
think? The fireman knew Charlie’s Daddy! 
Yes, the fireman came up to them, and said 



48 


CHARLIE 


to his Daddy, “Hello, Bob!” Bob was his 
Daddy’s name that his Mother and his 
Auntie always called him! And his Daddy 
said, “Why—Hello, Bill,” and they shook 
hands. 

Charlie was very much surprised that the 
fireman and his Daddy knew each other, 
but it was not so very surprising after all. 
The fireman lived in the village where 
Charlie’s Daddy had lived when he was a 
little boy, and where Charlie and his Mother 
and his Auntie were going to live for a 
whole month, and his Daddy and the fire¬ 
man had gone to the same school when they 
were little boys! 

Well, the fireman then looked at Charlie, 
and he said, “And is this your boy?” 

Then Charlie’s Daddy said, “Yes, this is 
Charlie, and you are the very man he wants 
to meet. Charlie wants to know eoc-act-ly 
what the fireman and the engineer do to 
make the train go—and he can’t find any- 



AND HIS PUPPY DOG BINGO 49 

body who knows. So go ahead and tell him 
all about it.” 

But the fireman said, ‘‘I can do better 
than that. Suppose you and Charlie take 
a ride on the engine with me; then he can 
see everything with his own eyes, and learn 
all there is to know in case he wants to be 
a fireman himself.” 

Yes, the fireman ac-tu-al-ly said those 
words! And Charlie’s Daddy said, “That 
will be fine. I’ll just go and tell Charlie’s 
Mother and his Auntie what has become of 
us, so that they won’t worry.” 

And he did so. Then the fireman, and 
Charlie and his Daddy all got into the cab, 
which is back of the engine, where the engi¬ 
neer and the fireman sit. 

The engineer was already sitting in his 
place, which is on the right of the cab. He 
was very pleased to meet Charlie and his 
Daddy, but he said that after the train had 
started he would not be able to speak a word 


50 


CHARLIE 


to anybody, and nobody must speak to him. 
Yes, nobody must ever speak to the engineer 
when he is driving the engine, because if 
anybody spoke to the engineer it might dis¬ 
tract his attention and then the train might 
be wrecked! 

All the time that the train is going the 
engineer has to sit on his seat with his hand 
on the throttle, which is the thing that makes 
the train stop in a hurry, and all the time 
he has to look out of the window to see 
what the signals say, and to see that there 
is nothing on the track ahead of him. 

If he sees a green signal on the signal 
post that means that the engine can go 
straight ahead, but if the signal is red, then 
it means ‘‘Stop”—and the engineer presses 
on the throttle, and the train stops. 

The engineer told all this to Charlie while 
they were waiting for the train to start. 
Then the engineer got the signal from the 
man on the platform; he blew the whistle. 


AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 51 

and the train started, and he could not say 
another word. 

Well, the fireman’s place is on the left 
side of the cab, and Charlie’s Daddy sat 
between him and the window, and Charlie 
sat on his Daddy’s knee. 

c/ 

The fireman has to work very hard, but 
when he is not working he can talk if he 
wants to. This fireman was very kind, and, 
when he was not working, he explained 
everything to Charlie and his Daddy—but 
all the time he was ex-plain-ing he had to 
keep looking out of the window, too, in case 
he should see anything that the engineer 
did not see. There are a great many win¬ 
dows in the cab of an engine—it has windows 
all round, because it is so very important 
that the engineer and the fireman shall see 
all that there is to see. 

Well, I will now tell you what the fireman 
was doing all the time that Charlie and his 
Daddy were riding on the engine with him. 




52 CHARLIE 

In front of the fireman was the steam 
gauge, which is a round thing like a clock, 
and it has a hand like a clock hand, too, and 
the steam makes the hand move—so that 
you can see how much steam is coming out 
of the boiler. When the steam is getting 
low the hand drops, and when the hand of 
the gauge drops to 150 the fireman knows it 
is time to put more coal in the fire box. 

Every time that the hand of the gauge 
dropped to 150 the fireman got up and 
opened a little door in the back of the cab, 
which opened right into the fire box, so that 
you could see the fire all red and glowing, 
and the fireman scooped a great shovel full 
of coal into it. The fireman told Charlie 
that it was very important how one shovels 
the coal into the fire box. It has to be shov¬ 
eled very evenly, so that it is not all black 
with coal in one place and all red hot with 
embers in another place. Yes, the fireman 
told Charlie that it needs a lot of practice 



AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 53 

before one can shovel the coal in just 
eoo-act-ly right. 

Then the fireman also had to watch the 
water gauge, which shows how much water 
there is in the boiler. 

When he saw by the water gauge that the 
water was getting low in the boiler, then 
the fireman had to turn a valve, which is a 
sort of handle that starts a pump working, 
and the pump pumps water into the boiler. 

Charlie very much wanted to turn the 
valve himself, but the fireman said, ‘‘No,” 
that it needed a whole lot of practice before 
one could pump water into the tank—as it 
was very important just how much water to 
pump. If too much cold water is pumped 
into the boiler it might cool the water al¬ 
ready in the boiler so that no more steam 
would come out—and then the train would 
stop I 

Do you think that the fireman on an en¬ 
gine is a busy man? Indeed he is! 


54 CHARLIE 

But that is not all that the fireman has 
to do. Oh, dear, no! The fireman has a lot 
more work to do. 

When the train is coming to a steep place 
—and there were a lot of steep places on the 
railroad that Charlie was traveling on—^the 
fireman has to make the fire red hot, so that 
lots and lots of steam can come out of the 
boiler. He makes the fire get hotter and 
hotter until the steam gets so strong that the 
“safety valve” pops off—and this shows the 
engineer that there is enough steam to push 
the train up the steep place. Yes, you can 
see that it would need a lot of extra steam 
to push a train up a steep, high hill. 

The fireman also has to blow a whistle, 
whenever the train comes to a crossing or to 
the station. And when they got to the last 
stop—which was the village where Charlie 
and his Mother and his Auntie and Bingo 
and Topsy and Jane were going to live for 
a whole month—the fireman let Charlie 





AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 55 

blow the whistle himself! Yes, he did, and 
you should have heard what a loud whistle 
Charlie blew. 

Well, at last they had come to the end of 
their journey, and Charlie certainly had 
learned a whole lot about engines. Yes, 
Charlie had learned a whole lot more than 
most people know. Of course he told his 
Mother and his Auntie about everything, 
so that they, too, should know all about 
what the fireman and the engineer do to 
make the train go. 

And Charlie said, '‘Now, when I get home 
to the city I will be able to play with my 
train in just the right way. I will be able 
to play that I am the fireman and the engi¬ 
neer, and I will know ex-act-ly what they 
do, and I will practice and practice being 
a fireman so that I can be one when I grow 



BINGO AND THE ANGRY 
ROOSTER 

I TOLD you in the last story how Charlie 
and his Mother and his Auntie and his 
Daddy and Topsy and Bingo and Jane all 
went to the country together. And how 
Charlie rode on the engine, which he liked 
very much, but Topsy and Jane had to 
travel in baskets, which they did not like 
at all, and Bingo had to travel all by him¬ 
self in the baggage car, and he did not like 
that either. 

But when at last they arrived at the farm 

56 




CHARLIE AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 57 

where they were going to stay for a whole 
month, Charlie opened the baskets and let 
Jane and Topsy out, and he unfastened 
Bingo’s leash, and they all went exploring 
together. Then Jane and Topsy and Bingo 
were delighted. They liked the country 
tre-men-dcnis-ly, and the longer they stayed 
the more they liked it. 

There were so many delightful things for 
cats and dogs to do, which they could not 
do in the city. Instead of long straight 
roads with automobiles dashing past all the 
time, there were fields and meadows to run 
around in. There were tall trees for Topsy 
to climb and nice muddy puddles for Bingo 
to roll in, and Jane could go out for long 
walks by herself without ever meeting any¬ 
thing dangerous. 

Charlie always got up very early when 
he was in the country because he liked to 
see the cows milked, and Topsy and Bingo 
and Jane hked to see .the cows milked also. 


58 


CHARLIE 


Charlie always carried three little bowls 
down to the barn, and the farmer filled them 
with milk straight from the cow, so that 
Topsy and Bingo and Jane could have their 
breakfast without waiting. This interested 
them all three very much, because they 
knew that at home their milk always came 
out of a milk bottle which had been left at 
the front door by the milkman. 

All the time that Charlie was in the coun¬ 
try he was allowed to run around in the 
fields and meadows all by himself, and of 
course Topsy and Bingo followed him 
wherever he went. It would take a whole 
book by itself to tell you all the delightful 
things that they did together. 

Now, wouldn’t you think that Bingo, with 
all the big countryside to play in, and ever 
so many interesting things to do all day 
long, would have been able to keep out of 
mischief at least as long as he was in the 
country? But no, he could not. You see, 


AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 


59 


puppies nearly always are in mischief—^they 
are made that way. So Bingo often went 
off hy himself and thought of nice, mischie¬ 
vous things to do. 

One of the things that Bingo liked to do 
more than anything else was to go and bark 
at the chickens. That was very naughty of 
him, and Charlie always stopped him when 
he found him doing it. But often Bingo 
would slip away from Charlie and dash 
down to the chicken house and bark, “Yap, 
yap, yap!” He loved to see the hens run¬ 
ning this way and that, clucking loudly and 
calling all the little chickens who came run¬ 
ning to hide themselves under their Mother’s 
wings. Bingo enjoyed this tremendously 
and never tired of the naughty game. Of 
course he never hurt any of the chickens or 
the hens. Bingo was a dear, nice, little 
puppy and he would never do a thing like 
that, but he did like to watch them running 
around and saying, “Cluck, cluck, cluck. 



60 


CHARLIE 


CLUCK!” Yes, it amused Bingo very 
much. 

One day Charlie was busy helping the 
lady at the farm to make the butter. This is 
a very interesting thing to do. Bingo 
watched Charlie for a while thumping away 
with the dasher, but soon he got tired of 
watching and not doing anything himself, 
so he decided that he would go and play 
with the chickens. 

He began to bark before he got there, and 
the hens began to cluck, cluck, cluck, and 
the chickens ran this way and that way and 
scrambled under their Mother’s wings. 

Bingo was so busy with his barking that 
he did not notice that there was a newcomer 
among the hens. This was a big white 
rooster that the farmer had brought home 
from the fair the night before. 

He was an ENORMOUS rooster. He 
had won a prize at the fair because he was so 
big. When Bingo jumped in among the 


AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 61 

hens, they were all so scared that they ran 
around and said, “Cluck, cluck, cluck, 
CLUCK.” But the rooster was not a bit 
scared—no, indeed, he was most indignant. 
He opened his beak, and Bingo heard a 
TREMENDOUS sound — “Ooka-ooka- 
ooka - ooooooooo! ooka - ooka - ooka - oooo- 
ooooo! ooka - ooka - ooka - ooooooooo!” And 
the rooster sprang up in the air, and flapped 
his wings, and rushed at Bingo! 

Bingo was so startled that he jumped 
backwards toward the chicken house, and 
the rooster dashed after him. All the hens 
came hurrying up and the chickens, too, 
saying, “Cluck, cluck, cluck, CLUCK.” 
They seemed to be on every side! Poor 
Bingo was terribly frightened, as well he 
might be—because the rooster was really 
very much annoyed, and he would have 
pecked Bingo if he had caught him. 

But he did not catch him. Just in the 
nick of time. Bingo saw the chicken house. 




62 CHARLIE AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 

and he just managed to scramble in at the 
door before the rooster caught him—he was 
safe. 

Yes, he was safe, but he had to stay there! 
The rooster did not quite like to go in after 
Bingo (you see Bingo was really very 
nearly as big as the rooster), but he deter¬ 
mined to keep Bingo a prisoner. He strut¬ 
ted solemnly up and down in front of the 
chicken-house door, and every time that 
Bingo would try to come out he would crow, 
“Ooka-ooka-ooka-ooooooooo! ooka - ooka - 
ooka - 000000000 1 ooka-ooka-ooka-oooooo- 
000!” and scare Bingo so that he decided 
to stay where he was. 

Poor Bingo! it seemed to him that he had 
been hours and hours in the chicken house. 
He wondered if he would ever get out again. 
He was sure that it was long past his din¬ 
ner hour, he felt so dreadfully hungry. 
Poor Bingo was a very unhappy little 
dog. 



The rooster kept Bingo a prisoner 


63 

























































CHARLIE AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 65 

At last Charlie had finished helping the 
farm lady make the butter. They had 
taken it out of the churn, and the farm lady 
had put it in a big wooden bowl and beaten 
it with wooden butter paddles so that all 
the butter milk was squeezed out. She had 
given Charlie some butter in a smaller bowl 
so that he could finish making some of the 
butter all by himself. The farm lady had 
promised him that they should have it on 
the dinner table and surprise his Mother 
and his Auntie. 

But it wasn’t dinner time yet, so Charlie 
ran into the garden to play with Bingo— 
and there was no Bingo to be seen! He 
called Bingo, but Bingo did not come. 
Then he decided to go down to the big barn 
to look for him. As he passed near the 
chicken house he heard a tre-men-dous com¬ 
motion—‘‘Cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, 
CLUCK,” “Ooka-ooka-ooka-oooooooooo, 
ooka - ooka - ooka - oooooooooo, ooka-ooka- 


66 CHARLIE AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 


ooka-ooooooooo” . . . Bingo had been try¬ 
ing to get out again! 

Then Charlie said, “Shoo, shoo, shoo!'’ 
and the hens and even the rooster all got 
out of the way, and Bingo was free again! 
Oh, how glad he was! He jumped, and 
pranced, and followed Charlie to the 
kitchen, where his dinner was waiting for 
him. 

But never again did Bingo bark at the 
chickens and chase them. He no longer 
thought it an amusing game. In fact Bingo 
never went near that chicken house again, 
he was so afraid of that terrible rooster. 



CHARLIE DELIVERS MAIL FOR 
THE STAGE DRIVER 


W ELL, I can tell you that Charlie and 
Topsy and Bingo liked living in the 
country very much. There were so many 
interesting things to do, and so many inter¬ 
esting people to talk to, and every single 
thing in the country was different from what 
it was in the city. 

Charlie had different things to eat, and he 
wore different clothes. You never can 
guess what kind of clothes Charlie wore 
when he was in the country 1 Charlie wore 
blue denim overalls, just like the farm work¬ 
ers, and his Mother bought them for him 
at the country store, which is ex-act-ly where 
the farm workers bought theirs! 

One day Charlie ran out to the gate be- 

67 


68 


CHARLIE 


fore breakfast to mail a letter for his Auntie. 
In the country there are no post boxes at 
every corner as there are in the city. Oh, 
no! When Charlie wanted to mail a letter 
he just had to go down to the gate and put 
it in the box that was fastened outside; then 
he had to take out an old red tobacco tin 
that was inside the mail box, tied to it by 
a string, and leave it hanging outside the 
box, so that the maihnan would see it when 
he went past and know that there was a let¬ 
ter for the mail. If he did not see the to¬ 
bacco tin hanging out, the stage driver 
would not stop at all—so it was very impor¬ 
tant not to forget to hang the tobacco tin 
out. 

Well, Charlie got to the gate just as the 
stage driver was driving up. When he saw 
Charlie standing there, he said, “HeUo, 
good morning.” And Charlie said, “Hello, 
good morning,” too. Then he said, “Are 
you the postman?” The stage driver 



AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 69 

laughed. “We-e- 11 , I reckon that you can 
say that’s what I am, though folks here 
about call me the stage driver.” 

“That is very interesting,” said Charlie. 
“Do you know, in the city the postman 
wears a gray cap and coat and trousers and 
he does not drive a cart, he has to walk?” 

The stage driver was most surprised. “Is 
that so?” he said. “Well, I reckon there’s 
lots of things they do differently in the city, 
and you, being a city boy, must surely know 
all about it. I certainly would like to hear 
about city ways. Supposing you ask your 
Mother if she would let you drive with me 
this afternoon when I take the afternoon 
mail up; then you can show me how they 
deliver mail in the city.” 

Oh, my goodness, but Charlie was ex¬ 
cited! He ran to the house so fast that he 
puffed and he blowed, and, as he ran, he 
called out, “Mother, Auntie! The stage 
driver says that I can go with him and give 


70 


CHARLIE 


out the letters just like a real postman in 
the city! He says that I can go this after¬ 
noon, if you say yes. Oh, Mother, oh. 
Auntie, I can go, can’t I?” 

Of course his Mother and his Auntie were 
de-light-ed when they heard that Charlie 
was to go and help deliver the mail just like 
a real postman, and of course they both said 
“Yes,” that Charlie might go. 

Well, the very minute that Charlie had 
finished his dinner, he said very politely, 
“Please excuse me, I don’t want to keep the 
stage driver waiting,” Then the lady where 
they were boarding and his Mother and his 
Auntie said, “Yes,” he might be excused. 

So Charlie got his hat and his whistle, 
which belonged to his sailor suit, because he 
knew he would need it as he was going to 
be a postman—and he ran down to the gate 
as fast as ever he could. ISTo, Charlie did 
not keep the stage driver waiting. It was 
Charlie who had to wait for the stage driver! 


AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 71 

But at last he came driving down the 
road and, when he saw Charlie waiting at 
the gate, he said, “Hello, young man, so you 
are coming with me. That’s fine! Hop in.” 

So Charlie hopped in and he showed the 
stage driver his whistle and how he was go¬ 
ing to blow it just like a real city postman. 

The stage driver said, “First we are go¬ 
ing to the station to get the mail;” and he 
clicked with his whip and said, “Gid ap, 
gid ap I” to the horses, and they did “gid ap,” 
and their bells jingled as they trotted along 
the road. 

The station was a long way off from the 
farm where Charlie and his Mother and his 
Auntie were staying, but the horses trotted 
so quickly, so quickly, that they got there 
before the train did. 

Charlie and the stage driver got down, 
and the stage driver hitched the horses to 
the post, and then they both went on to the 
platform to wait for the train. 


72 


CHARLIE 


Everybody in the station talked to Charlie 
—even the station master and the man in the 
ticket office—and they said, “Is this the new 
stage driver?” The stage driver said, “No; 
thi§ boy is the new postman and he is going 
to deliver the mail for me.” 

You can believe that Charlie felt proud 
and important when he heard them talk like 
that. 

At last the train came in, and it was the 
same train that had carried Charlie and his 
Mother and his Auntie and his Daddy and 
Topsy and Bingo and Jane to the country. 
Yes, it was the very same train and the 
very same engine that Charlie had ridden 
on, and the fireman was there, and he looked 
out of the cab and called out, “Hello, 
Charlie!” 

Well, the stage driver went to the bag¬ 
gage car and a lot of men were unloading 
packages, and there was one great big 
sack. 




AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 73 

Charlie asked what was in that great big 
sack—and the stage driver told him that 
was the mail. Yes, all the letters that 
Charlie was going to deliver were stuffed 
into that great big sack! 

So the stage driver got the mail bag and 
the packages on to the stage. The stage 
driver carried all the big packages and 
Charlie carried all the little ones. 

Then the stage driver said, “Gid ap!” and 
off they went again. First they went to 
the post office and waited there a long time. 
They had to wait till the postmaster had 
taken out of the mail sack all the mail for 
the people who lived near the post office and 
who had to come and get their mail for them¬ 
selves. But at last the postmaster had fin¬ 
ished his job, and it was time for Charlie 
and the stage driver to begin theirs. 

This, of course, was the interesting part 
of the drive. The stage rattled along the 
road, the horses went so fast; and at last 



74 


CHARLIE 


they came to a house and the horses stopped 
of their own accord. 

The stage driver gave Charlie some let¬ 
ters and told him to go and deliver them. 

So Charlie climbed down from the stage 
and he blew his whistle, one, two, three times 
—but nobody came to the gate to get the 
letters from the postman. No, even though 
Charlie blew again and again, nobody came 
at all. 

Then the stage driver said, “I reckon the 
folks at this farm are not used to city post¬ 
men. I reckon they don’t even know that 
that whistle means that there is mail for 
them. You had better just slip the letters 
in the box, the way we do in these parts, 
and we’ll drive on to the next farm.” 

So Charlie did as the stage driver said. 
He had to stand on tiptoe because the box 
was so high. He felt a little sad that no¬ 
body had come to get the letters from him— 
but it was fun putting the letters in the box. 


AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 75 

Then they drove on to the next farm. 
This time there were a whole lot of letters 
and a parcel, too. Charlie carried the parcel 
himself, as it was a little one. He said to 
the stage driver, “Perhaps I had better not 
blow my whistle this time.” But the stage 
driver said, “Oh, go ahead and blow your 
whistle, you know you are a city postman 
and you must do as they do.” 

So Charlie blew on his whistle—he blew 
a TREMENDOUS blast, and he blew 
again and again. And—what do you think ? 

The farmer who was in the field, hoeing 
potatoes, threw down his hoe and he came 
running, as fast as he could run, to see v/hat 
Charlie’s whistle meant. 

And the farmer’s wife, who was in the 
kitchen frying doughnuts, the minute she 
heard Charlie’s whistle, threw down her 
cooking spoon and ran out of the kitchen 
door to see what Charlie’s whistle meant. 

And the cat, who was sleeping on a rock- 




76 CHARLIE AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 

ing chair on the porch, sprang straight up 
in the air when she heard the whistle; and 
she came tearing down to the gate to 
see what in the world all that whistling 
meant. 

And the watch dog, who was tied up out¬ 
side his kennel—he jumped and pranced 
and tried to get loose because he wanted to 
find out what all that whistling meant! 

And they all came rushing down to the 
gate, except the dog, and when they saw 
Charlie with the parcel and the letters— 
my goodness, they were surprised! 

The fanner said, “Well, well, to think 
that we have a postman just the same as 
they have in the city—well! well!’’ and he 
shook hands with Charlie. 

Then the farmer’s wife said, “Mr. Stage 
Driver, couldn’t you wait a minute while I 
run into the house and get a doughnut 
apiece for you and the postman?” The 
stage driver thought that would be very nice 







H 

1 





^ \ \J*V \(Af 

pTv*.,.. _Vv..v 



— ‘^r 


Charlie blew a tremendous blast 


77 

























































CHARLIE AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 79 

—SO the farmer’s wife brought the dough¬ 
nuts and they were delicious. 

Then they said, ‘‘Good-by” to the nice 
farmer and his wife and thanked her for the 
delicious doughnuts, and off they went to 
the next farm. Charlie blew his whistle, and 
he blew his whistle every single time they 
came to a farm, but nobody else came to the 
gate to see what was the matter; so Charlie 
put the letters in the box every time. 

Soon they came to a long stretch of road 
where there were no houses at all, and 
Charlie and the stage driver could talk to¬ 
gether without being interrupted every 
minute by Charlie having to deliver letters. 

Charlie told the stage driver all about 
the city and about his Mother and his Auntie 
and his Daddy, and about Jane and Topsy 
and Bingo, and about the iceman and the 
postman, and the letter boxes that are at 
the corner of the streets where you mail 
your letters. 


80 CHARLIE AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 

Then the stage driver told Charlie all 
about the country and what an important 
person the stage driver is when he lives in 
the country—even more important than the 
postman. For the stage driver not only 
brings letters, and parcels for birthdays or 
Christmas, he brings everything that the 
people in the country need—clothes, and 
furniture, and medicine—every single thing 
that they use, except what they grow 
themselves. 

Everything is sent from the city by the 
train in great big packages. And the stage 
driver puts the packages on to the stage, and 
carries some of them to the country store, 
where the people can come and buy the 
things they want—but some of the things go 
directly to the farmers who live too far from 
the country store. 

Charlie thought this very interesting. 
There were a whole lot of questions that he 
wanted to ask. But now they had come to 






I 



Charlie and the stage driver talked together 


81 






























i 

V, 


3 


V 



CHARLIE AND HIS PUPPY BINGO S3 

another farm and there was a great big 
package all ready at the gate! 

The stage driver got down and put it 
on to the stage. Charlie was much sur¬ 
prised. He said, “I thought you brought 
packages to people, I did not know that you 
took any away.” 

Then the stage driver said, ‘T reckon you 
can’t guess what is inside this package and 
where it is going to be sent. Why, this 
package is full of maple sugar, and it is go¬ 
ing to be sent to the city because people 
could not get maple sugar in the city un¬ 
less the people in the country sent it to 
them. This package is going to a big store 
in the city, and when you go back home, 
maybe you and your Mother will go 
into the store and buy a pound of this 
very same maple sugar that is in this pack- 
age!” 

Yes, that is what the stage driver said, 
and Charlie was so interested and surprised 


84 


CHARLIE 


that the stage driver started to surprise him 
some more. 

“See all those pretty blossoms on the ap¬ 
ple trees. Well, by Fall they will all have 
turned into apples. Then the farmer will 
gather them off the trees, and he will put 
them in sacks, and I will take them to the 
station on my stage and load them on to 
the train, and they will be taken to the city, 
where you city folks will buy them. Same 
thing with the wheat growing in the fields, 
and the vegetables, and everything the 
farmer raises. Everything that he doesn’t 
need for his own use the farmer sends to the 
city, first by the stage driver and then by 
the train.” 

My goodness! This gave Charlie a lot to 
think about! He said, “I think that trains 
and mail stages are the most interesting 
things in the world. I will either be a stage 
driver or a fireman when I grow up, and I 
will take things to the country people that 


AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 85 

they need and bring back things to the city 
people that they need.” 

By this time all the letters and all the 
packages had been delivered. And the 
stage driver was driving back the way they 
came. 

At last they came to the farm where 
Charlie was staying. And the stage driver 
said, “Here is one more letter for you to de¬ 
liver, and then your job will be finished. 
You have been a great help to me to-day. 
I think you are a fine postman and I hope 
you will come with me another day and de¬ 
liver the mail for me. This letter is for your 
Mother.” 

So Charlie thanked the stage driver and 
climbed down from the stage. He ran all 
the way to the house; then he rang the bell 
and blew his whistle just as the postman did 
at home. And who do you think opened the 
door? It was his Mother. 

She said, “Good afternoon. Postman, 


86 CHARLIE AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 

have you a letter for me?” And Charlie 
said, “Yes, ma’am,” just like the postman. 
Then he couldn’t help laughing, and he for¬ 
got that he was the postman, and he hugged 
his Mother and said, “Is it a letter from 
Daddy?” 

And it was. Yes, it. was a letter from 
Daddy, and what do you think? The letter 
said that Daddy found that after all he 
would be able to get away from the city— 
and that he would arrive on Friday after¬ 
noon, and Charlie was to be sure to come 
and meet him. 

Then Charlie’s Mother hugged him again 
for bringing her such a nice letter and his 
Auntie came downstairs, Topsy and Bingo 
prancing after her. Bingo jumped up and 
down and Topsy climbed on to Charlie’s 
shoulder, and thev all listened to the adven- 
tures he had had that afternoon when he was 
a postman. 



CHARLIE MAKES A POOL AND 
SAILS HIS BOAT 

LL the time that Charlie and his Mother 



XjL and his Auntie were living in the 
country Charlie’s Daddy came down every 
single Saturday to visit them, and he stayed 
in the country with them until Sunday night, 
when he had to go back to the city. And 
every Saturday, when Charlie’s Daddy 
came to visit them in the country, he always 
brought a present for everybody! 


87 



88 


CHARLIE 


One Saturday Charlie’s Daddy came and 
he brought Charlie’s Mother a basket of 
peaches, and he brought his Auntie a box 
of candy, and he brought Bingo a ball, and 
he brought Jane and Topsy a catnip mouse 
—and what do you think he brought for 
Charlie? I will tell you. Charlie’s Daddy 
brought Charlie a sailboat! It was a beau¬ 
tiful boat, painted white with a green water 
line. It had a mast and two sails. His 
Daddy told Charlie that the big sail at the 
back is called the mainsail and that the stick 
that holds it out at the bottom is called the 
boom; and that the little three-cornered sail 
in front is called the jib and the stick to 
which it is fastened is called the bowsprit. 
Of course Charlie’s Daddy did not say 
“the front and back” of the ship either. Oh, 
dear, no! Charlie’s Daddy called the front 
part of the ship the bow, and he called the 
back part the stem, and the bottom of the 
ship he called the keel —and, I can tell you, 



AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 89 

nobody ought to own a ship who does not 
know these things. 

Well, of course, the very first thing that 
Charlie wanted to do was to go and sail 
his boat—but what do you think? The 
brook was so shallow and full of stones that 
there was no place deep enough to sail the 
boat at all! That was very sad. 

Charlie and his Daddy walked a long way 
beside the brook looking for a pool where 
the water was deeper, but they could not 
find one. 

Then Charlie’s Daddy said, “Well, unless 
some rain comes to make the brook get 
deeper, I guess you’ll have to wait to sail 
your boat till you come back to town and 
can sail it in the bath tub. As long as you 
are in the country you will have to say that 
the boat is in “dry dock.” 

But what do you think? Charlie didn’t 
even know what a dry dock is. No, his 
Daddy had to explain to him all about it— 



90 


CHARLIE 


how the ship is put into “dry dock” when 
it has to be mended or painted below the 
water line. First the ship sails into the dock, 
and then the dock is closed up behind the 
ship and all the water is pumped out and 
the ship is propped up straight with props 
from each side of the dock. 

So Charlie and his Daddy made a dry 
dock for his ship on the bureau in his room. 
They made the dock of books, and propped 
the ship up straight with blocks on each side 
of the keel. The ship looked very beautiful 
on the bureau, but Charlie did wish that he 
could sail it and that he did not have to 
keep it in “dry dock” all the time. 

One day, when his Daddy had gone back 
to town, Charlie and his Mother and his 
Auntie went for a walk. 

They went for a new walk. Instead of 
just going along the road, they thought it 
would be interesting to follow the creek. So 
they climbed a wall and followed the creek 


ANB HIS PUPPY BINGO 91 

through the fields and into a wood which 
was “private property”; but there was a 
sign which said people could walk there if 
they did not do any damage. 

Then they came to a place where there 
was a stone wall built right across the creek 
from side to side and above the stone wall 
was a great e-nor-moiis pool! And the 
water pounded over the stone wall like a 
waterfall. The pool was very deep and 
wide, but above the pool the creek was all 
stony and shallow again. 

Charlie was very much interested. He 
said, “Why is that stone wall built across 
the creek, and what makes that pool so deep 
and broad when the rest of the creek is shal¬ 
low and narrow?” 

Then his Mother explained to Charlie all 
about it. She explained to him that the pool 
was a swimming pool, and that the stone 
wall built across the creek from side to side 
was a dam. The dam keeps the water in hke 


92 


CHARLIE 


a basin until it gets as deep as the dam is 
high and then the water flows over the top. 

Charlie was very much interested when 
he heard this. He said to his Mother, “Can 
anybody build a dam?’’ 

And of course his Mother said that any¬ 
body could. She said that you only had to 
heap a lot of mud and stones together just 
below where you wanted the pool to be, and 
just as high as you wanted the pool to be 
deep. 

Oh, my goodness! Charlie was excited 
then. I wonder if you can guess what he 
said ? ^ 

I will tell you. Charlie said, “Mother, 
Auntie, I want to go home im-me-di-atedy, 
I AM GOING TO BUILD A DAM! 
Yes, I am going to build a dam across the 
brook and make a great ENORMOUS 
pool to sail my boat in.” Of course his 
Mother and his Auntie said they would go 
home immediately when they heard that 


AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 93 

Charlie was going to do such an important 
thing. 

So they did go home, and Charhe put on 
his overalls and he ran down to the brook 
and began to work at his dam. 

First he found a place where the brook 
was a little wider and where the banks were 
quite steep. Then he started scooping out 
the stones at the bottom of the brook, so that 
there would be no rocks for his boat to get 
wrecked on. 

You may be sure that Bingo and Topsy 
were very much interested in what Charlie 
was doing. Yes, they both came and 
watched him awhile. Then Topsy began to 
dig a hole in the grass—he wanted to show 
that he could dig a hole just as well as 
Charlie could. Bingo tried to dig a hole, 
too, but he soon got tired of it and ran 
around and barked, “Yap, yap!” He 
wanted Charlie and Topsy to come and play 
with him. 


94> 


CHARLIE 


But Charlie was much too busy to pay 
any attention to Bingo. He just went on 
bending over the brook, digging out the 
stones until he had the bottom of the brook, 
where his pool was going to be, nicely 
cleaned out. Then he started to work on 
the dam. 

First Charlie hunted around until he had 
got together a nice lot of flat stones, and he 
began to pile them up one on top of the 
other, and he went on piling them up until 
the dam went right across the brook from 
bank to bank. 

At first the water paid no attention to 
Charlie’s dam at all. It just went on flow¬ 
ing through the chinks between the stones, 
just as if there were not any dam there at 
all! But Charlie piled up great banks of 
mud, and put in more big stones and then 
little stones to fill the chinks—and at last 
the water began to rise! 

Yes, the water rose, and it rose until it 


'AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 95 

was a nice big pool and came up to the top 
of the banks on both sides, apd then it began 
to dribble over the top of the dam. So 
Charlie knew that the dam was finished! 
Of course the water in the pool was 
dreadfully muddy, but Charlie did not mind 
a bit. Why should he, when the pool was 
so nice and wide and deep? Yes, it was 
so deep that it came all the way up to his 
knees 1 

Then Charlie saw his Mother and his 
Auntie walking across the field from the 
house. They had come to see how Charlie 
was getting along with his dam. 

And, my goodness, how astonished they 
were when they saw that Charlie had ac- 
tu-aldy finished the dam and what a huge 
big pool he had made! 

But both his Mother and his Auntie could 
not help laughing when they saw how 
Charlie was all covered with mud. He had 
mud all over the front of his overalls, and 


96 


CHARLIE 


on his hands, and there was a big splash of 
mud on the end of his nose! 

Then his Mother said, “Now, Charlie, din¬ 
ner will soon be ready, so you must hurry 
home and wash your face and hands, and 
put on a clean suit. Then after dinner you 
may sail your boat in your beautiful big 
pool.” 

So Charlie ran to the house, and he 
washed his face, and he scrubbed his hands, 
and he put on a clean blue sailor suit, and 
he ate his dinner. 

Then he gave Topsy and Bingo and Jane 
their dinner. And then—he and his Mother 
and his Auntie went down to the pool to sail 
the boat. And, what do you think? The 
mud had all settled at the bottom of the 
pool while Charlie was eating his dinner, 
and the pool was as clear as glass so that 
you could see to the very bottom and you 
could see the dam that Charlie had built. 

Then Charlie launched his boat. The pool 


AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 97 

was deep enough—but the boat did not sail 
quite well even yet. No, the boat leaned 
a little to one side and, when a gust of wind 
came, it would have turned right over if 
Charlie had not caught hold of the mast just 
in time. 

Charlie felt very sad that his boat would 
not sail properly when he had built such a 
beautiful pool for it. 

But his Auntie said, “Cheer up, Charlie, 
I know exactly what is the matter with the 
boat so that it will not sail, and it can be 
fixed so that it will sail beautifully. The 
trouble is that the boat has not enough bal¬ 
last. That means that the masts and the 
sails are too heavy for the keel. But if we 
nail a strip of lead along the bottom of the 
keel the boat will stay upright and will not 
lean to one side.” 

Well, Charlie and his Auntie took the 
boat and went to the barn, where the farmer 
was mending his mowing machine. 


98 CHARLIE AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 

And his Auntie asked the farmer if he 
knew where they could get a strip of lead 
to nail to the keel of Charlie’s boat. 

The farmer said, “Right here I have all 
the lead that you can use.” And he cut off 
a strip of lead just the size of the keel. 
Then the farmer also gave Charlie some in¬ 
teresting-looking nails that he said could 
be just the thing to nail the lead to the 
keel. They were crooked nails that folded 
over and looked just like tiny croquet 
hoops. 

Then Charlie’s Auntie took the mast and 
sails off, and she hammered the nails over 
the lead so that it was fastened to the 
keel of the boat. Then she put the masts 
and sails back. Don’t you think that 
she was a clever Auntie? Yes, indeed, she 
was. 

So they went back to the pool again, 
where Charlie’s Mother was waiting to see 
if the boat would sail right this time. 



The boat sailed beautifully 


99 





































CHARLIE AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 101 

And what do you think? It did! Yes, 
the boat sailed beautifully, it sailed right 
away to the other side of the brook, and 
when Charlie turned the rudder to the right 
the boat turned in the opposite direction 
and sailed right back again! 

Yes, that boat could do everything that 
a real boat does, and when the wind blew 
hard it keeled over to one side but it did not 
capsize. No, nothing could make that boat 
capsize. Even when Bingo stood upon his 
hind legs and tried to catch it when it went 
sailing past, he fell splash into the pool and 
made a great ENORMOUS wave, just 
like the waves in the middle of the ocean— 
still that boat did not capsize. 

Well, every day after that Charlie sailed 
his boat in the pool. He made a dock for 
it, with stones, and he put grass and pebbles 
on the deck for the cargo, which he loaded 
and unloaded at the dock, and the boat 
sailed from side to side of the pool. When 


) 

> > 


> ) 


102 


CHARLIE 


the boat got to the other side Charlie would 
jump across the brook where it was narrow 
and turn the rudder so that the boat would 
turn right round and sail back again to the 
dock. 

Yes, Charhe had more fun than I can 
tell you playing with his boat. And Topsy 
and Bingo played, too; they jumped across 
the brook backwards and forwards and they 
tried to catch the boat as it sailed past. 
And, Charlie’s Mother and his Auntie liked 
to help Charlie sail his boat; yes, they en¬ 
joyed watching it sail so beautifully before 
the wind. 

And—on Saturday, when Charlie’s 
Daddy came down to visit them all—my 
goodness! he was surprised and de-light-ed 
to see the dam and the pool that Charlie had 
made all by himself, and to see how beauti¬ 
fully the boat sailed, with its sails blown 
out by the wind, and with its cargo of grass 
and pebbles piled up on deck. 


AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 103 

Yes, Charlie’s Daddy thought that 
Charlie was a very clever boy to have made 
that dam and that pool all by himself—and 
I think so, too. 




CHARLIE BUILDS A REAL 

HOUSE 


W ELL, the days passed and passed— 
and at last it was time for Charlie 
to go back to the city. He said “Good-by” 
to the stage driver and to the postmaster 
and to the man at the country store and 
to the lady at the farm, where he and his 
Mother and his Auntie lived while they 

104 




CHARLIE AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 105 

were in the country. And he said “Good- 
by” to the cows and to the chickens and 
to the baby pigs. 

Charlie’s Mother and his Auntie packed 
the suitcase and the trunk and put Topsy 
into his basket, and he did not like it at all 
and said “Miaouw, miaouw!” And Jane 
was put into her basket and she did not like 
it either, but she was a good cat and she did 
not say a word. Then Charlie put the leash 
on Bingo’s collar and they all climbed into 
the surrey, which is a two-seated carriage, 
and they all drove to the station. Then 
they all got on to the train and off they 
went to the city. 

This time there was another fireman, as 
Charlie’s friend was having a day off, so 
Charlie did not ride on the engine this time; 
no, this time he rode in the day coach with 
his Mother and his Auntie and Topsy and 
Bingo and Jane. 

Charlie was feeling rather sad that he had 


106 


CHARLIE 


to leave the country and all his new friends, 
but as the train steamed farther and farther 
away, he began to think that it was rather 
nice to be going back to the city after all. 

It would be nice to see his Daddy again 
and the iceman—and he wanted to tell the 
postman all about the stage driver and how 
letters are delivered in the country. And 
Charlie wanted to see his house again, where 
he lived, and the garden and his electric 
train and his automobile and his great 
e-nor-mous flashlight. Yes, Charlie began 
to feel very glad that he was going home 
again. 

And—when Charlie did get home, what 
do you think he found? Why, Charlie 
found that something most interesting and 
ex-cit-ing had been happening while he was 
away in the country. Some builders had 
started to build a house on the other side 
of the road, and he could sit on his own 
front gate and watch them build. 




Charlie Watched the Builders 
























































































































ANB HIS PUPPY BINGO 107 

The builders had already built quite a 
lot of the house, and in front of what they 
had built was a big pile of bricks and also 
a pile of sand and quicklime to make mor¬ 
tar of. 

It was late in the afternoon, so the build¬ 
ers had stopped working, but Charlie 
wanted to stay right there and look at every¬ 
thing. But his Mother and his Auntie said, 
“No.’’ They said that it was getting late 
and Charlie must come right in and have 
his supper and go to bed. To-morrow he 
could watch the builders build as much as 
ever he wanted to. 

So the next day Charlie ran out immedi- 
ately after breakfast. The builders were 
already at work—they were working hard, 
putting the bricks on top of each other. 
Charlie saw how they put each brick on top 
of two others, he saw how they did it very 
carefully so that the brick was eoc-actdy in 
the middle of the two below it. Then he saw 


108 


CHARLIE 


how carefully the builders put the mortar 
on with a flat, wide knife, so that none of 
the mortar dripped over the edge of the 
l)ricks but made a nice straight line up and 
across. And, because the bricks were laid, 
one in the middle of the two below, the 
white line of the mortar made a most in¬ 
teresting design. 

Charlie was ah-so-lute-ly fascinated, he 
thought that he would never get tired of 
watching those builders build. 

Then Topsy and Bingo came out to see 
what Charlie was doing and to get him to 
play with them, but Charlie was much too 
interested in watching the house being built, 
so he paidmo attention at all. No, he paid 
no attention to Topsy and Bingo, but went 
on watching the builders build the house. 

After a while one of the builders looked 
up, and he said, “Hello, you seem to like 
watching us build this house; I guess you 
would like to be over here helping us.” And 


AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 109 

Charlie said, “Oh, yes, I mould like to come 
over and help you, I mean to be a house 
builder when I grow up.” Then the builder 
said, “Is that so? Have you had any prac¬ 
tice in building houses?” Charlie said, “No, 
I have never built a real house, but I can 
build beautiful houses with my wooden 
blocks.” 

But the builder said, “Well, I guess you 
need more practice than that —you have to 
know how to put the mortar on, and that is 
not as easy as it looks. How would you like 
me to give you some bricks and mortar and 
then you can build yourself a house in the 
corner of your yard?” Yes, the builder 
ac-tu-al-ly said that to Charlie! And he also 
asked him, “Have you an express wagon 
that you can haul the bricks in?” 

Of course Charlie said, “Yes,” and he 
ran off to the house to tell his Mother and 
his Auntie all about the house builder, and to 
ask if he might go across the road by himself 


110 


CHARLIE 


to get the bricks. And his Mother and his 
Auntie both said, “Yes.” They said that it 
would be perfectly safe for Charlie to go 
across the road all by himself, because no 
automobiles were allowed on the road and 
there was a sign which said, “Closed to 
Traffic.” 

Then Charlie got his express wagon and 
he went across the road to get the bricks. 
He loaded the bricks into his express wagon 
and he dragged them across the road and 
in at the garden gate to the corner of the 
garden where there were no flowers and no 
vegetables. Charlie did this over and over 
again; he did it so often that his legs ached, 
—and every time that Charlie went across 
the road Topsy and Bingo followed him. 
When Charlie had been across the road four, 
five, siiV times getting his express cart full 
of bricks every time, the builder said, “Now 
you have enough bricks to start with. Sup¬ 
pose you go now and ask your Mother for a 


AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 111 

pail and I will give you some mortar, al¬ 
ready mixed.” 

Charlie ran and got the pail, and the 
builder filled it with mortar and carried it 
over to Charlie’s yard himself because it was 
too heavy for Charlie to carry. The builder 
certainly was a nice man. 

Of course Charlie wanted immediately 
to start in building the house. But his 
Mother and his Auntie said, “No.” They 
said that Charlie had worked enough for one 
day, and that he had better play a little. 
And his Mother said, “You had better wait 
till your Daddy comes home before starting 
to build your house; I think you ought to 
ask his advice as to exactly where would 
be the best place to build it.” 

Charlie thought that his Mother was right 
and he determined to wait till his Daddy 
came home before building the house. So 
he went off and had a lovely game with 
Topsy and Bingo. 


112 


CHARLIE 


At last Charlie’s Daddy came home. 
Charlie was watching for him out of the 
dining-room window. As soon as he saw his 
Daddy come in at the gate, Charlie ran out 
to meet him and to tell him all about the 
bricks that the builder had given him and 
about the house he was going to build. 

Charlie’s Daddy was very interested; he 
was so interested that he said he would like 
to help Charlie to build the house. Then 
Charlie’s Daddy went upstairs and changed 
into his old suit, the one he always wore 
when he was digging in the garden, and he 
found a spade, and he said, “Come on, 
Charlie, let us start building the house.” 

So they went into the garden and started 
to build the house. First Charlie’s Daddy 
dug a trench, the size that the house was 
to be; this was to be the foundation so that 
the house should not blow over in a wind¬ 
storm. Charlie helped dig the trench 
also. It was very hard work digging the 


AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 113 

trench—it was such hard work that both 
Charlie and his Daddy were puffing and 
blowing before they had finished digging. 
But at last the trench was finished, and 
while they were both standing still to admire 
it Charlie’s Auntie came and called them in 
to supper. 

So they both had to go in and change 
their clothes and eat their supper and, by 
the time that supper was over, it was too 
dark to work at the house any longer. 
Charlie did not like this at all, he said, “I 
do not want to stop for a single minute until 
the house is built,” 

But his Daddy said, “Cheer up, Charlie, 
to-morrow is a legal holiday, and I shall 
be home all day. So I shall be able to help 
you build your house until it is finished.” 
Then Charlie was satisfied and he went to 
sleep the minute he got into bed—and all 
night long he dreamed about the beautiful 
house he was going to build. 



114 


CHARLIE 


The next morning both Charlie and his 
Daddy got up early; they got up at six 
o’clock! They each had a glass of milk and 
a cookie, then they went into the garden and 
began to work. 

First they started piling bricks into 
the trench, one on top of two others, 
act4y the way Charlie had seen the build¬ 
ers doing it; and his Daddy showed him 
how to put the mortar on each brick with 
a flat trowel that he had found in the wood¬ 
shed and that looked ex-act-ly like the 
one the builders used. It is very impor¬ 
tant to put the mortar on right, as 
that is what makes the bricks stick to¬ 
gether. 

Before breakfast Charlie and his Daddy 
had ac-tu-al-ly flnished the foundation! 
Charlie was very glad that he had his Daddy 
to help him—why, if it had not been for 
his Daddy I don’t think that Charlie would 
have thought of building any foundation for 


AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 115 

his house, and then it would have blown 
down! 

Well, you may be sure that the moment 
they had finished breakfast, and when 
Charlie’s Daddy had smoked just one ciga¬ 
rette, they both of them were hard at work 
on the house again. 

For one reason Charlie was sorry that it 
was a legal holiday, and that was because 
the builders were having a holiday, too, and 
Charlie would have liked them to see him 
in his overalls that were all covered with 
mortar and pink with brick dust—so that 
he looked ex-act-ly like a real builder. 

Well, they worked and they worked. 
And you never can guess how clever 
Charlie’s Daddy was. He was just as 
clever as a real builder. Yes, Charlie’s 
Daddy ac-tu-al-ly knew how to make a win¬ 
dow in the house—and a door also! The 
window went all the way to the top of the 
roof and so did the door, for Charlie’s 




116 


CHARLIE 


Daddy said that there was one thing he did 
not know how to do that a real builder 
knows, and that is how to make an arch, with 
a keystone! Soon the house was tall enough 
for Charlie to go in at the door, and then 
his Daddy said that the front of the house 
was tall enough. But the sides had to be 
built sloping higher toward the back so that 
the roof should slope—it is very important 
that a house should have a sloping roof so 
that the water may drain off it when it rains. 

At last his Daddy said, “There, the house 
is finished, all but the roof!” 

Charlie was excited! He jumped and he 
shouted, “My house is nearly finished, my 
house is nearly finished!” 

Then his Daddy went off to the woodshed 
and he brought back a whole lot of boards 
and a roll of tar paper. He put the boards 
all across the roof and covered them with 
tar paper—and THE HOUSE WAS 
FINISHED! 



AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 117 

Yes, it was ac-tu-al-ly finished. It had a 
beautiful doorway, and a window and a roof 
—anybody could see that it was a real house. 

Topsy and Bingo were nearly as much 
excited as Charlie. Bingo ran in and out 
of the door and barked and barked. But 
Topsy climbed up the wall and in at the 
window and he did this again and again. 

Then Charlie’s Mother and his Auntie 
came to look at the beautiful house. And, 
my goodness! they were surprised that 
Charlie and his Daddy had built a house 
that looked exactly like a real house. 

And Charlie’s Mother said, “Now, we 
will go back to the house and we will bring 
Charlie’s .little chairs and his table, and I 
will get a rag rug that is in the attic; then 
the house will be furnished and Charlie can 
live in it with Topsy and Bingo and Jane.” 

So that is what they did! And Charlie’s 
Auntie hung some curtains across the win¬ 
dow and tied them with blue ribbon, and 


118 


CHARLIE 


his mother put the rag rug on the floor, and 
placed the furniture around the room so that 
it looked most cozy and most comfortable. 

Well, just when everybody was standing 
and admiring the house, Jane the cat came 
up, and she looked at the house for a min¬ 
ute. Then she walked straight in at the 
door and lay down on the rug, and she 
purred and purred as loud as she could purr, 
because she liked Charlie’s house so tre¬ 
mendously. But Topsy jumped in at the 
window and he walked around the house and 
sat down on every one of the little chairs 
and even on the table, but when he jumped 
into the express cart, which was in the corner 
of the house, he liked it so much that he 
curled up and went to sleep. But Bingo 
was the most excited of all—he dashed 
around and around the house, and he 
jumped up in the air and barked and barked 
and B ABKED! 

The next day, when the builders were at 



AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 


119 


work again, Charlie climbed up on the gate 
and called out to the builder who had given 
him the bricks, “Good morning, Mr. 
Builder 1 I have finished my house!” 

The builder was most interested and he 
came over to look at the house that Charlie 
had built. 

He said, “Did you build that house all 
by yourself?” 

And Charlie said, “Yes, I built that house 
all by myself, and my Daddy helped me.” 



































































































BINGO LEARNS TO COME WHEN 
HE IS CALLED 

T3ingo was a very clever little dog—^he 

learned very quickly all the tricks that 

Charlie taught. He could sit up and 

beg, and he could bark three times for the 

flag, and when Charlie put a piece of cake on 

his nose Bingo could toss it in the air and 

catch it in his mouth, and, if Charlie threw a 

stick. Bingo would always run and bring it 

back. Yes, Bingo could do all these things 

120 


CHARLIE AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 121 

and he liked to do them again and again. 
He was such a clever little dog that all the 
boys in the neighborhood knew him well, and 
they used to watch him over the fence doing 
all the tricks that he had learned. 

But there was one thing that Bingo never 
would learn and that was to come imme¬ 
diately when he was called. If Bingo 
thought that Charlie was going for a walk 
or that his dinner was ready, he would come 
the very minute that Charlie called him; but 
if he was doing something interesting or 
something that he should not be doing, 
Charlie could call “Bingo, Bingo, Bingo,” 
till he was hoarse. Bingo would not come! 
He would wag his tail and perk up his ears 
to show that he had heard, but he would not 
come. 

One day Charlie was playing in the gar¬ 
den with Bingo and Topsy when Bingo 
suddenly saw something that interested him 
in the road and he scrambled under the gate 


122 


CHARLIE 


and went scampering along down the road. 

Charlie did not approve of this at all. 
He called and he called, “Bingo, Bingo, 
Bingo”—but Bingo would not come, he 



went on racing along the road. He had 
decided that he would like to go out and see 
the world! 

Then Charlie ran into the house to tell 
his Mother and his Auntie. He could not 



































AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 123 

run after Bingo, because of course he was 
not allowed to go outside the garden gate by 
himself. His Auntie did not even wait to 
put on her sweater though it was very cold; 
she ran straight out of the gate to bring 
Bingo back—but Bingo had ab^so-lute-ly 
disappeared! 

Charlie and his Auntie put on their coats 
and went a long distance down the road, 
calling Bingo all the time, but they could 
not find him anywhere. They asked every¬ 
body that they met if they had seen a little 
white dog with black spots but nobody had 
seen him. Then they went home again, hop¬ 
ing that Bingo would have arrived there 
before them. But no. Bingo was not there! 

Now I will tell you what happened to 
Bingo. When he had run along the road 
for quite a distance he came to a turning 
where the road ran very steeply downhill. 
There was a boy with a bob sled, and just as 
Bingo reached the corner the boy lay down 


124 


CHARLIE 


flat on his sled, and biff! off he flew down 
the hill! Bingo was much excited. He 
barked, “Yap, yap, yap,” and ran after the 
bob sled as fast as ever he could. He was 
determined to catch that bob sled! But of 
course he could not. The boy and the sled 
reached the bottom of the hill before Bingo, 
but not long before. 

The boy had decided to go home, as it was 
near his dinner time, and he was dragging 
his sled after him when Bingo arrived at the 
bottom of the hill, all out of breath and with 
his little red tongue hanging out. But he 
was not too out of breath to jump up at the 
boy and bark “Yap, yap, yap!” He was 
trying to tell him how glad he was that he 
had caught up with him at last. 

The boy patted Bingo on the head and 
talked to him, but of course he did not know 
his name as he lived quite a distance away 
and had never seen Bingo before. 

Bingo liked the boy very much and de- 


AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 125 

cided that he would go for a walk with him. 
So he followed after him. It was a long, 
long walk, but at last they arrived at the 
boy’s house. 

It was a tall brick house very much larger 
than the house in which Bingo lived with 
Charlie; and it had to be larger too, because 
a great many people lived in it—^two fam¬ 
ilies lived on every floor! 

The boy climbed up flve flights of stairs; 
he lived on the top floor of all—and Bingo 
followed after him. 

The boy’s Mother was cooking dinner in 
the kitchen and she was very much surprised 
when she saw Bingo. She said, “Who is 
that dog?” The boy said, “I found him and 
I am going to keep him for my dog. I have 
always wanted one.” 

But his Mother said, “How can we keep 
a dog when we live flve flights up and have 
only three rooms? It is impossible. After 
you have had your dinner you must take him 


126 


CHARLIE 


back to where you found him, then he will 
be able to find his way home. He has a 
collar on so he must belong to somebody. 
In the meantime, take him downstairs and 
tie him up in the yard. I have just washed 
the kitchen floor and I am afraid he will 
make it dirty again.” 

The boy felt very sad because he could 
not keep Bingo, but he took him down to the 
yard as his Mother had told him to, and he 
tied him up to the fence with a piece of rope. 

Bingo did not like this at all. He pulled 
and he pulled and he pulled, but he could 
not get loose. He pulled and he pulled and 
—he PULLED, and—suddenly the fasten¬ 
ing of his collar snapped (it snapped be¬ 
cause Charlie had not fastened it properly 
that morning), and Bingo was a free dog. 

Then he scampered gayly out of the yard 
and into the street again. He thought that 
it was time to go home to Charlie and his 
dinner. But—^what do you think? Bingp 




AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 127 

could not find his way home! He ran 
through street after street but he could not 
find the house where he lived with Charlie 
and Topsy and Jane. The boy’s Mother 
must have thought that Bingo was older 
than he really was when she said that he 
could find his way home by himself. 

Bingo was beginning to be worried— 
there were a great many children playing in 
the streets through which he passed and 
every now and again he thought that he saw 
Charlie, but it always tmmed out that he 
was mistaken. Sometimes some of the chil¬ 
dren would try to stop him but Bingo al¬ 
ways ran away from them. He wanted to 
go home. 

At last he passed four little boys who 
were walking along together. Bingo was 
very tired now and he was not running any 
more; no, he was walking very slowly and 
limping a little because he had hurt his foot. 

One of the boys looked at him limping 


128 CHARLIE AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 

along in front and he said, “Look at that 
puppy. He looks exactly like Charlie's 
Bingo, who does such wonderful tricks!” 

The other hoy said, “He does look like 
him. Let’s call him and see if he answers to 
the name Bingo.” So they called, “Bingo, 
Bingo, Bingo!” 

You may be sure that when Bingo heard 
his name called this time he did come 
gunning as fast as ever he could. 

Bingo did not know the boys but they 
knew him. They had often watched him 
over the fence doing the tricks that Charlie 
had taught him, so they knew where he hved. 
Now that they were sure it was Bingo, 
as he had come at once when they called 
him, they decided that they would take him 
back to his home; for they knew how un¬ 
happy Charhe must be because he had lost 
his dog. 

But they were afraid that Bingo might 
run away again, so one of the boys held on 



129 














> ■ 


/ 


/ 




\ 






CHARLIE AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 131 

to him while the others made a harness for 
him out of some string that one of them had 
in his pocket. Then they put it on Bingo 
and they tied a long piece of string to the 
middle of the harness for a leash. 

So they started on their way—but you 
can think how funny Bingo did look in his 
rope harness! The boys could not help 
laughing at him, and Bingo did not like that ^ 
at all. He had a feeling that he looked very 
ragged and untidy, as indeed he did; and all 
the dogs that he met and who wore beautiful 
collars, sniffed at him, as though to say, 
“What an extraordinary thing to wear, in¬ 
stead of a collar!” 

Bingo wished very much that he had not 
lost his own collar, which was a very beauti¬ 
ful one. He wanted to stop and tell the 
other dogs all about it. But the four boys 
were in a hurry, and they pulled at his rope 
so that he had to follow them. 

At last they reached the bottom of the hill 



132 


CHARLIE 


that the boy had coasted down. It was ever 
so much harder to climb up that hill than it 
had been running down it that morning. 
But at last they got to the top and Bingo 
began to feel very excited because he recog¬ 
nized the street that they were now walking 
along. Every single day he walked along 
that street with Charlie and Charlie’s 
Mother and his Auntie on their way to the 
park. 

And—then at last they reached the gar¬ 
den gate and Bingo was home! He was so 
excited that he barked “Yap, yap, yap!” 

Charlie was eating his supper in the din¬ 
ing room and when he heard it he said, 
“That’s Bingo’s bark!” and he and his 
Mother and his Auntie and his Daddy all 
jumped up from the table and ran to the 
front door. And—there were the four little 
boys holding Bingo by the rope! 

Well, you may be sure that everybody 
was glad to see Bingo. Charlie grabbed him 




AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 133 

in his arms and hugged him while he thanked 
the boys for bringing him home, and 
Charhe’s Mother and his Auntie thanked 
them also. Then Charlie’s Daddy put his 
hand in his pocket and he brought out four 
beautiful new quarters and he gave one to 
each of the boys, so they were very happy, 
too. But the happiest of all was Bingo, he 
barked till he could bark no more because 
he was hoarse. He barked so loudly that he 
wakened Jane and Topsy from their nap 
and they came out to see what it all meant. 

When Jane saw Bingo, what do you think 
she did? Why, she started to wash him! 
Yes, she did; she washed him all over and he 
needed it, I can tell you. 

Then, when Bingo was nice and clean, 
Charlie gave him his dinner, and when he 
had eaten it he was so tired that he curled 
up beside Jane on the kitchen rug, just as 
if he was a baby puppy again, and went fast 
asleep. But always after that. Bingo would 


134 CHARLIE AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 

come when he was called. He came so 
quickly when Charlie called, “Bingo, Bingo, 
Bingo,” that everybody noticed it, and said 
to Charlie, “What a well-trained dog you 
have. Did you train him yourself?” And 
Charlie would say, “Yes, I did. He is a 
clever dog; there isn’t anything that Bingo 
can’t do!” And I don’t believe there was! 




WHAT CHARLIE DID ON A 
RAINY DAY. 


O NE day it was a rainy day. The rain 

poured and it poured, and the wind 

blew. It was a very disagreeable day. It 

poured so hard that Charlie could not go out 

in the yard and play in his little house. His 

Mother and his Auntie both said that it was 

135 



























136 


CHARLIE 


the kind of day when it is best to stay in¬ 
doors. 

Then Charlie’s Mother said, “As it is such 
a rainy day that I cannot go out, I shall 
make preserves all the morning. I shall 
make plum preserves and orange marma¬ 
lade, and we will have some for supper to¬ 
night.” 

And his Auntie said, “I shall sew all the 
morning; yes, I will make myself a nice new 
dress.” 

Topsy and Bingo and Jane did not say 
anything. But they all three lay down on 
hearth rug and went to sleep. They had 
decided that, as it was such a disagreeable, 
rainy day that they could not go out and 
play, they would sleep all the morning, and, 
maybe, dream a nice dream about playing 
in the fields in the country. 

As for Charlie —he did not know what 
to do. He stood at the window and he 
looked out at the rain pattering on the ledge 



AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 


137 


and against the window pane—and he said, 
“I don’t know what to do, I don’t know 
what to do!” And he said it again and 
again. 

His Auntie said to him, “The very idea, 
Charlie, you have heaps of things to do! 
Why don’t you play with your toys—with 
your train and with your blocks?” 

But Charlie shook his head. “It’s no fun 
playing with my train—it just goes round 
and round, and I have built everything with 
my blocks that I know how to build. I want 
something new to play! Something I have 
never played before.” 

His Auntie thought hard for two whole 
minutes. Then she said, “Look here, 
Charlie, I have a splendid idea! You run 
up to my room and bring me a pile of type¬ 
writing paper that you will find on my desk. 
Also bring a paper of pins out of my top 
bureau drawer, and I will show you some¬ 
thing new to play with.” 




138 


CHARLIE 


So Charlie ran upstairs and brought down 
these things. Then his Auntie told him to 
get his own scissors with the rounded tops 
and his box of colored chalks. 

Charlie began to feel very interested and 
excited. He wondered mhat in the world 
his Auntie was going to do. 

Well, when he had brought his scissors 
and his crayons, his Auntie sat down at the 
table and she took a piece of typewriting 
paper and folded it this way and that way. 
Then she colored one part of it red with the 
red chalk, and she made three little green 
strokes with the green chalk, and with the 
scissors she cut along the creases, and folded 
it some more; then she pinched it here and 
pinched it there, and she stuck a pin in 
at the back, and—^there was a beautiful 
little white house with a red roof and green 
shutters, and a door that opened and 
shut! 

Charlie was delighted. He said, “Oh, oh! 



AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 


139 



How beautiful! Show me how to make it. 

V Please, Auntie, show me how to make a 
little house.” 

So his Auntie showed him eoo-act-ly how 
to make the little house—and you will see 
in the picture on this page eoo-act-ly how 
Charlie’s Auntie cut the paper, and where 
she painted it red for the roof, and where 
she put the windows with the green shutters, 
and where she cut the door so that it could 
open and shut, and where she put the pin in 
at the back to keep it together. Yes, 
Charlie’s Auntie used a pin instead of paste, 
because paste does not always stick very 





























140 


CHARLIE 


well and it often makes things look messy 
unless you are very skillful. 

Well, after Charlie had tried several times 
and his Auntie had showed him every time 
where he had gone wrong, he ac-tu-al-ly suc¬ 
ceeded in making a paper house all by him¬ 
self! And it was a beautiful house. 

When his Auntie saw that Charlie could 
make paper houses just as well as she could, 
she said, “Now I must go upstairs and sew 
my dress, and you, Charlie, can make a 
whole, big village of little houses, and I am 
sure that you will think of some nice game 
to play with them.” 

Well, Charlie did go on making his houses 
until he had made a whole lot of them—yes, 
he had made a tre-men-dous number of 
houses; maybe he had made fifteen houses 
out of paper, with red roofs and green doors 
and shutters. Then he thought that he had 
made enough and that he would like to play 
with them—and so he did. 


ANB HIS PUPPY BINGO 141 

I will tell you how Charlie played with 
the houses. First he went over to a corner 
of the room where there was no furniture 
to get in the way and there he set up some 
of his houses and made a village of them. 
Then he had a grand idea—and the idea 
was that he would like to have some trees in 
his village, and he knew eoo-act-ly how to 
make them! 

He ran into the kitchen where his Mother 
was making delicious preserves and he said, 
“Oh, Mother, I want some branches off the 
bush near the back door—and it is very im¬ 
portant, Can I go out just for a minute 
and pick some?” 

And his Mother said, “Yes. If you put 
on your rubber boots and your slicker and 
your sou’wester, you can go out for just a 
minute, even though it is raining, and pick 
the branches you want, but you must not be 
long.” 

So Charlie did so—he put on his rubber 




142 CHARLIE 

boots and his sou’wester and his slicker and 
he picked all the branches that he wanted. 
When he brought them into the house he 
had to shake them over the sink because 
they were so wet. 

Now I suppose you will wonder how 
Charlie made those branches stand upright 
on the floor to make them look like trees ? 

I will tell you. Charlie went to his box, 
where he kept the old toys that he used to 
play with when he was a very little boy, and 
there he found a whole lot of spools. When 
he was a baby he used to like to string spools 
together and his Mother and his Auntie al¬ 
ways gave him their spools of thread when 
they were bare, so Charlie had dozens of 
spools and he sometimes let Bingo and 
Topsy play with them. 

Well, Charlie got these spools and he 
stuck a small branch in the end of one of 
them and stood it upright. It made a beau¬ 
tiful tree! So he made a dozen trees and 




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Ch(irUf^ Made Three Villages 












































































ANB HIS PUPPY BINGO 143 

set them all along the streets of the vil¬ 
lage. 

But there were no people in the village. 
Charlie thought hard for two whole min¬ 
utes—then he went and found his old Noah’s 
ark and his box of lead soldiers. Of course, 
Noah and his wife and his family were the 
people who lived in the village, and so were 
some of the soldiers. The animals of the 
ark he stood up in the fields behind the 
houses and he pretended that they were all 
cows—yes, he pretended that the elephants 
and the giraffes and the lions and the tigers 
were all cows. 

When Charlie had finished making one 
village, he started right away and made two 
more, so that he had three villages, and each 
village had a railway station. Then he 
arranged his railroad track so that it went 
between the different villages, and he made 
his train run up and down between them. 
He put some of the lead soldiers in the 



144 


CHARLIE 


coaches. And every time that his train came 
to a station Charlie blew his whistle and 
called out, “All out for Stony Hollow! All 
out for Pine Hill! All out for Ford’s Cross¬ 
ing!” and some of the soldiers got out at 
every station and others got in. 

My goodness! but Charlie did have a 
good time playing with his train and with 
his villages. He had such a good time that 
the morning only seemed five minutes long! 

When his Mother and his Auntie came in 
to see what he had been doing with himself 
all the morning, and to tell him that it was 
time to get ready for dinner, they were sur¬ 
prised and de-light-ed when they saw the 
beautiful villages that Charlie had made. 

Well, the very minute that Charlie had 
finished his dinner he went back to his vil¬ 
lages, because he had thought of several 
new ideas while he was eating his dinner. 

Yes, he remembered a little tiny horse 
and wagon that his Mother had given him. 


AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 145 

When his Mother had given it to him there 
was some candy tied to the wagon, and of 
course Charlie had eaten the candy long 
ago; but he had kept the horse and wagon 
because it was so cunning and little, though 
he thought that it was too little to play with. 
But now Charlie was going to use it for his 
village. 

I wonder if you can guess what he was 
going to use it for? I will tell you. Charlie 
decided that the little wagon should be the 
stage, and he put a lead soldier in it and 
pretended that he was the stage driver. 
Then he loaded the stage with little parcels 
made out of paper which he pretended were 
sacks of apples that the farmers of the vil¬ 
lages were sending to the city; and he 
loaded them on to the train, and blew his 
whistle—and off it started! 

Charlie played all the afternoon with his 
train and his stage and his villages; he 
played with them for hours and hours. The 



146 


CHARLIE 


rain had stopped and the sun was shining 
but Charlie did not notice that—until he 
heard a little hoarse “Wow-wow!” outside 
the door. 

It was Bingo. Yes, Bingo had wakened 
and wanted Charlie to come and play with 
him. So he opened the door and Bingo 
came jumping into the room, and the very 
first thing he did was to knock over three 
houses in Charlie’s village. And Topsy 
came chasing after Bingo and he knocked 
over four more with his tail. They would 
have knocked all the houses over if Charlie 
had not stopped them. But Charlie took 
Bingo and Topsy out of the room and he 
shut the door behind him so that they should 
not spoil his village. 

Then Charlie’s Mother called to him and 
she said, “Why don’t you and Topsy and 
Bingo run out and play in the yard? The 
sun is shining, but you must put on your 
rubber boots, as the grass is still wet.” 


AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 147 

Charlie thought that it would be fun to 
run around a little as he had been so busj" 
all day. He called Topsy and Bingo, and 
they had a grand time chasing each other 
around the garden and in and out of Char¬ 
lie’s little house that he had built of the 
bricks that the builders had given him. 
Sometimes Charlie would catch Bingo, and, 
when Bingo was caught, always he rolled 
over on his back and stuck his four legs in 
the air—so that he looked ridiculous! 

But Charlie never could catch Topsy. 
Whenever he nearly caught him, Topsy 
would just climb up a tree, and he’d climb 
way up and peek down at Charlie through 
the branches. 

So Charlie and Topsy and Bingo played 
together in the garden till Charlie’s Daddy 
came home. Then, of course, Charlie had 
to show his Daddy the beautiful villages 
he had made, and the way each one had a 
railway station, and how his train ran up 


148 


CHARLIE 


and down the line between the stations, just 
like a real train, and carried packages and 
mail and passengers. 

His Daddy was most interested and de- 
light-ed. He was so interested and de- 
light-ed that he sat straight down on the 
floor, and began to play with the villages 
himself. But Bingo and Topsy had to be 
left in the garden while Charlie and his 
Daddy were playing with the villages, be¬ 
cause they wanted to play also, and their 
idea of playing with the villages was to 
knock down cdl the houses and all the trees! 

Well, Charlie and his Daddy played to¬ 
gether till supper was ready. Then Char¬ 
lie’s Mother said, ‘T have been making pre¬ 
serves all day, and now we will eat some for 
supper. I have made plum jam and orange 
marmalade.” Charlie and his Daddy tasted 
the plum jam and the orange marmalade— 
and they both were delicious. 

And what do you think? Charlie’s Auntie 



AND HIS PUPPY BINGO 


149 


had finished her new dress and she wore it 
down to' supper—and it did look beautiful. 

So Charlie and his Mother and his 
Auntie all had a nice day after all, even 
though it was such a rainy, disagreeable 
kind of a day. And Topsy and Bingo and 
Jane had enjoyed the day too! 





























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